Mohammad Riaz is content. His four children are healthy and well. The winter wheat, which he is cultivating on his two hectares, is looking good.

He is 45 years old, lives in Sialkot in Pakistan, and his main occupation is the stitching of footballs. Two thirds of all footballs produced world wide are manufactured in his home town, some 20-25 million per year.

It takes 690 stitches to turn 32 pentagonal and hexagonal panels into a football. Depending on the quality of the ball an experienced stitcher can stitch three to five balls per day. The most tricky bit is the final seam, which has to be done blind - through adjacent seems - and without puncturing the bladder.

Mohammad Riaz owes his good harvest to Fair Trade: Six years ago his employer, the sports manufacturer Talon, became the first Fair Trade supplier of footballs.

Whenever he stitches a ball, which has been ordered by a Fair Trade buyer, he is guaranteed a wage which is about 50% higher than what is usually paid in the industry. A Fairtrade premium is also paid for every fairtrade ball stitched. Part of the premium goes towards financing a health scheme for all workers involved in the football production at Talon - because Fair Trade orders are still the exception to the extent that getting a Fair Trade ball to stitch is almost like winning a lottery. The health scheme, on the other hand, continuously benefits all employees - and is a first for casual workers like Mohammad Riaz.

On top of this, the Talon Fair Trade Welfare Society also provides small loans to workers who want to develop a second source of income, since the stitching of balls is highly seasonal: World- and Euro-Cup years are good, the years in between are lean.

Mohammad applied for a loan of £180 towards the purchase of an irrigation pump, two thirds of the loan is already repaid.

We have a range of fair trade sports balls starting with mini footballs and rugby balls at only £5 each