Balls from Pakistan

The Euro 2004 Football Championships and the World Cup in 2006 have served in bringing the the fair trade of footballs back into the spotlight. Going under the established motto of "Fair Pay – Fair Play”, the world's shops and action groups will be setting out to make the issue of fair trade in balls well known with a number of promotions planned to take place between the Euro 2004 Championships and the World Cup in 2006. Indeed, fair trade in balls offers a perfect way of bringing public attention to the issue of fair trade.

While the largest sports articles corporations have signed up to the so-called Atlanta Agreement, which bans the use of child labor in the manufacturing of footballs, this agreement does not include balls made as toys or for advertising purposes. It only covers balls that are made for sport. To this end, a large product group has not been taken into account by the agreement.

In addition to sports balls, fair trade also offers a socially acceptable alternative to toy and advertising balls, which are increasingly being produced in the People's Republic of China, a country which does not recognize the convention of the International Labor Organization (ILO). This convention bans, for example, the use of child labor.

Fairly traded balls

gepa balls are produced by a medium-sized Pakistani company called Talon Sports according to the fair-trade criteria. gepa pays a premium of about 1,15 euros over and above the going market price for exported balls. The earnings from this premium are administrated by the Talon Fair Trade Society.

Talon, local non-governmental organizations and the sewers themselves are all represented in the Fair Trade Society. Depending on the quality of the balls, sewers earn between 20 and 60 percent more for their work. Wages are calculated to make sure that two adults working an eight-hour day under fair-trade conditions can earn a suitable minimum wage.

Following the wishes of gepa, there is a bias towards women in the awarding of contracts for fair-trade balls. In addition to this, the society works on a number of programs aimed at helping sewers. A good example of the way in which money from the foundation is put to good use are the nurseries set up in two of Talon's production centers for its female workers. This allows women to work without having to worry about looking after their children, while at the same time preparing the children for school and increasing their chances of success.

The Foundation also awards credit for people wanting to set up their own businesses (i.e. for setting up mixed-goods shops). 280 employees have taken out and repaid credit since 1998. Another very important aspect of the fair-trade movement is the health centre, which is greatly valued and intensively used by the workforce. It offers free treatment in the centre, free medications and cost absorption when people have to be admitted to hospital.

The fair ball (success) story

The fair-trade football campaign began in 1998. gepa has purchased around 239,000 balls from Talon since the program began. More than 91,000 of these balls were delivered to European fair-trade organizations and other cooperation partners such as (i.e. "Bread for the World").

Even though much has been achieved with the premium, the fair-trade balls make up just one percent of Talon's production and, as such, is still very small. The more fair-trade balls are sold, the more can be done for the local workers.

In order to offer a wider range of balls, gepa has introduced balls with the IMS seal (International Matchball Standards) and the FIFA seal into its program. The quality of both of these balls is so high that they meet the standards required for national and international football matches.

[Barbara Schimmelpfennig / Brigitte Frommeyer, gepa Fair Trading House]