Farmers were likely to have one of the best years in a long time, while meat processors had returned to profitability after the 2012 ''disaster'', albeit with margins that remained very slender, the latest ANZ Agri Focus said.
While reform appeared closer, such positive cyclical swings had seen the pressure come off before and the appetite for change wane.
But the sector still needed to move those reforms forward, as most of the structural issues identified in the red meat sector strategy, which was released in March 2011, remained largely unresolved, the report said.
The strategy, initiated by the Meat Industry Association and Beef and Lamb New Zealand, was aimed at improving the sector's viability and increasing its earnings from $8 billion to $14 billion by 2025.
Its purpose was to provide an ''umbrella'' framework that individuals and businesses within the red meat supply chain could use to identify future opportunities for growth and improvement.
A five-year priority plan was provided, along with a timeline of key initiatives that different parts of the sector were encouraged to undertake.
Unfortunately, growth had been ''fairly slow'' since the strategy's announcement, meaning the run rate required to hit the aspirational growth target had begun to climb, ANZ's economists said.
''If you were marking the industry on the progress of the initiatives contained within the five-year priority plan, the score card wouldn't read well at present.
''There would likely be a lot of 'yet to be completed' initiatives and several running over time - or, as the sector strategy progress report showed late last year - `in progress' initiatives.''
For industry performance to lift, various ''puzzle pieces'' needed to fit into place and one of the critical pieces was lifting the financial performance of those farmers in the bottom 80% closer to that of the top quintile, as a ''considerable gap'' had emerged.
The sector seemed to be in a similar position to the dairy sector in the early 2000s.
Consolidation, succession, investment and other structural changes brought renewed vigour to on-farm performance.
With an ageing ownership structure in the red meat sector, the chance for more consolidation and succession to ''blood'' the younger generation and drive increased investment and improved performance seemed to provide a a similar opportunity.
The red meat profit partnership was the first material investment in a long time aimed at addressing the performance gap within the sector.
The programme was officially launched in December last year and the first of the initiatives were starting to be delivered.
