{"id":129,"date":"2026-07-05T11:17:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T09:17:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lamaison-soleil.com\/nos-origines\/"},"modified":"2026-07-05T11:58:24","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T09:58:24","slug":"nos-origines","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/lamaison-soleil.com\/en\/nos-origines\/","title":{"rendered":"Our origins \u2014 Maison Soleil direct trade"},"content":{"rendered":"
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From highland sun to your cup.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

At Maison Soleil, we do not see coffee as an anonymous commodity crossing the oceans. We see it as the fruit of a place, a season, a craft and, above all, a relationship of trust between producers and a roastery. That is why, from our founding in April 2021 in Marseille, we chose direct sourcing \u2014 direct trade<\/em> \u2014 with cooperatives in French-speaking Africa.<\/p>\n

Why direct trade?<\/h2>\n

The coffee we roast does not pass through five middlemen whose names we do not know. It comes from cooperatives we know, that we have visited or whose leaders we speak with regularly. This model rests on three commitments, common to every one of our partnerships:<\/p>\n

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  1. Multi-year contract<\/strong> (three years minimum, tacit renewal): giving producers visibility, allowing them to invest, train and improve their washing stations or drying beds.<\/li>\n
  2. Guaranteed floor price<\/strong> : at least 30% above the world market price at the time of signing, whatever happens on the futures markets.<\/li>\n
  3. Harvest pre-financing<\/strong> : 40% of the contracted volume is advanced before harvest \u2014 a rare practice at our scale, because the coffee season demands cash long before the first bags reach the port.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    These rules are not lines in a CSR report. They were written at the same time as our first contract, signed in April 2021 with the cooperative Soleil du Cavally<\/strong>, in C\u00f4te d’Ivoire. They have since been renewed, refined and adapted to each new partner.<\/p>\n

    Our five partner cooperatives<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
    Cooperative<\/th>\nCountry<\/th>\nPartner since<\/th>\n2025 volume<\/th>\nMain process<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
    Soleil du Cavally<\/a><\/td>\nC\u00f4te d’Ivoire<\/td>\n2021<\/td>\n30 tonnes\/year<\/td>\nNatural<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Terres de Nyungwe<\/a><\/td>\nRwanda<\/td>\n2022<\/td>\n22 tonnes\/year<\/td>\nWashed<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Rives du Kivu<\/a><\/td>\nDRC<\/td>\n2022<\/td>\n14 tonnes\/year<\/td>\nWashed<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Les Hauts de Boyo<\/a><\/td>\nCameroon<\/td>\n2023<\/td>\n9 tonnes\/year<\/td>\nWashed \/ Honey<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Route d’Antananarivo<\/a><\/td>\nMadagascar<\/td>\n2024<\/td>\n6 tonnes\/year<\/td>\nWashed<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    Together, these five origins form the heart of our identity. They go into our signature blend Terres Ensoleill\u00e9es<\/strong>, into the Signature and Prestige subscription tiers, and into the Direct Trade Africa Gift Set<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

    Why French-speaking Africa?<\/h2>\n

    When Camille Vasseur, our Head of Sourcing & Producer Relations, joined Maison Soleil in January 2022, she brought with her years of assignments in Abidjan, Douala and Antananarivo. Her conviction: the French-speaking African highlands are home to coffees of great finesse, often under-represented on European roasters’ menus, and to cooperatives ready to raise their quality if given the commercial stability they need.<\/p>\n

    Our Marseille home is no accident either: it is one of France’s historic coffee-importing ports, long turned towards trade flows from West and Central Africa. Calling here, after a journey that began in the Rwandan hills or on the shores of Lake Kivu, extends a maritime and trading history that we have taken care to reinvent at an artisan scale.<\/p>\n

    From seed to cup<\/h2>\n

    Every coffee you receive carries a record: variety, altitude, process, cooperative, roast date. This traceability was not invented to comply with the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR): it already existed, because direct trade demands knowing where every lot comes from. Our partners have shared the GPS coordinates of their plots since the start of each partnership. When regulatory compliance became mandatory, we were already ready.<\/p>\n

    Honesty from the field: the Rives du Kivu incident (2023)<\/h2>\n

    Direct trade does not mean everything is simple. In July 2023, the temporary closure of a regional transport route in South Kivu, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, delayed the container expected in August by three months. The result: our DRC \u2014 Rives du Kivu<\/strong> origin was out of stock from August to October 2023. We told our subscribers the story, offered substitutions to our other African origins, and worked with Patrice Mwamba and his team to strengthen the logistics clauses of our contract. This episode is part of the reality of direct coffee. We would rather tell it than erase it.<\/p>\n

    Meet our partners<\/h2>\n

    If you want to go further, each cooperative has its own page: its history, its leader, its plots, its process, and the exact journey the coffee makes before reaching our roasting drums in Marseille.<\/p>\n