The Associação Brasileira Das Indústrias de Calçados (Abicalçados – www.abicalcados.com.br) invited UNIDO to hold the 16th meeting of the Leather Panel in Gramado.  The programme of Leather Panel meeting followed the experience from the previous Leather Panels. The meeting focused mainly on discussing globally relevant papers and topics and provided guidance for UNIDO’s future activities. Reports on World response to the Asian dominance in the footwear industry and possible scenarios in the future in the footwear industry, retails practices and channels in the footwear industry, benchmarking in the leather industry, guideline for wet blue grading and reasons for wet blue grading and Africa’s role in the world in the leather industry and the presentation of a papers on the features of the Brazilian leather-based industry sectors.