The objective of the study is to analyze the actual, fairly contradiction situation caused by economic changes in the past 3-5 decades, to review the most pressing problems – especially from developing countries point of view (where the bulk of leather processing and leather products manufacturing takes place presently) and to recommend principles and directions for [internationally] coordinated development in this field. Paper prepared and presented by Mr. F. Schmel during the 17th UNIDO Leather Panel Meeting in Addis Ababa/Ethiopia (January 2010)