The New Zealand beef and lamb industry is at risk of being an insignificant player in the country's economic recovery if it does not adopt a more integrated approach, ANZ Bank said.
The bank - New Zealand's biggest rural lender - said the outlook for "soft" commodities, such as meat, was improving.
"Businesses which develop New Zealand primary production into desirable products are the new stars of the economy," Graham Turley, ANZ's managing director commercial and agri, said.
"Among all this, beef and lamb - the red meat sector - is stuck in its ways and won't benefit unless bold action is taken,'' Turley said in notes to an address to the Red Meat Sector conference, which starts on Sunday. He noted the importance of beef and lamb to the New Zealand economy.
"But the fractured nature of the industry, with its poor planning, means it's now at risk of missing out in the country's economic recovery," Turley said.