German manufacturer Puma has produced footballs under ‘fair trade’ conditions in order to endorse a campaign focussing on the prevention of juvenile delinquency in South Africa.
In cooperation with the Bavarian government and a South African based Catholic mission, Puma will provide 5,000 footballs – bearing the fair trade certification mark – for the initiative “Club der guten Hoffnung” (Club of Good Hope) to be used in matches at Bavarian and South African schools.
For this purpose, Puma’s long-term football supplier, Ali Trading in Pakistan, was monitored for compliance to the Fairtrade standards and was certified by the independent certification organization FLO-CERT.
Commenting on the move, Horst Widman, VP of Puma said:
We are pleased that we can support this initiative with Puma footballs sporting the fair trade mark.
This will bring young people together in a peaceful way and will help curtail youth violence. At the same time, we further improved the working conditions in our supplier’s factory in Pakistan.
Puma has carried out audits at its suppliers’ factories for more than ten years, monitoring strict adherence to its Code of Conduct. This guarantees that the manufacturers comply with criteria such as respecting human rights, freedom of association, prohibition of child labour as well as the payment of minimum wages. The Puma auditors also monitor the employees’ working hours, the overtime accrued, the contractual rates of pay, pay rolls, employment contracts, health and safety standards in the workplace as well as the appropriate disposal of waste.
The independent fair trade certification mark guarantees in addition that Ali Trading will receive' 10 percent of the ball’s purchase price, which the firm has to invest – after a democratic vote among the factory’s management, workers and employees – into social, economic or ecological development projects on the premises.
