Part of every sale goes back
Spirumanne is a small company, and it has never worked alone. From the first years, it has moved forward with an association: Uni Vers La Vie. Part of the profits goes to it, and that has been part of the house’s story from the start.
It is not a sales argument added after the fact. It is a real structure, with a board, articles of association and a shared founder: Adrien Fiorucci–Bourrillon, who was elected co-president of the association at the general meeting of 17 May 2017, alongside Paula Rivero Rodriguez and Gilles Planchon.
“This is a small company with a SOLIDARY purpose: part of the profits is donated to the association ‘Uni Vers La Vie’, a partnership that keeps growing, with the aim of working against malnutrition through spirulina […], and of promoting family and self-sufficient cultivation.”
Uni Vers La Vie
The association was formed in 2008. Its purpose, in summary, fits in a few lines:
- Contributing to food access and nature protection projects.
- Encouraging exchange and sharing through artistic, technical and cultural means.
- Providing help with spirulina, as part of food aid and humanitarian projects.
- Supporting spirulina producers by sharing techniques and equipment and distributing their production.
In practice, this takes three forms: distributing spirulina, teaching family and self-sufficient cultivation — learning to produce for yourself rather than receiving indefinitely — and cooperation projects. These projects are documented in Burkina Faso, Morocco, Algeria and the Sahrawi refugee camps of Smara and Tindouf, where the “Spiruline Sahraoui” project combines distribution, nutritional monitoring and a feasibility study for local production.
The association also has a musical side, the spiruC.H.O.N.S: a maxi-CD in 2012, an album in 2013, and annual gatherings called spiruchonnades. Sales of the records partly fund the projects.
- Association website — universlavie.org
- The spiruC.H.O.N.S — facebook.com/universlavie.spiruchons
The Gondologo farm, in Burkina Faso
This is the most direct link between our catalogue and the ground.
Our spirulina from Burkina Faso comes from the humanitarian farm at Gondologo, in Ouahigouya, in the north of the country. Part of its production is given away free there as part of food aid and humanitarian projects.
By buying these flakes, you are buying the production of a farm whose model rests on that redistribution. Three formats are available: 100 g, 500 g and 1 kg. They are crunchy spirulina flakes (Arthrospira platensis), to crunch as they are or to add to a salad, a compote, a juice.
We do not publish a percentage or an amount given per order: we would rather not put forward anything that cannot be verified.
[[TO COMPLETE: exact share or amount of profits donated to Uni Vers La Vie, and redistribution figures for the Gondologo farm, if the client wishes to publish them with a source.]]
What the “Solidaire” marker means
In the shop, some product pages carry a Solidaire marker. It is not a label issued by a certification body, and we do not present it as one. It is an internal marker, and it means one precise thing: this product is directly linked to an identified solidarity project.
Four lines carry it today:
- Solidarity spirulina flakes from Burkina Faso — 100 g, 500 g and 1 kg. From the humanitarian farm at Gondologo.
- CD Spiruchon. The spiruC.H.O.N.S record, whose purchase partly funds the association’s projects.
The other markers in the catalogue — “Cru”, “Bio”, “Ecocert”, “Sans OGM” — follow other logics. In particular, the Ecocert mention is reserved for the India range: it refers to spirulina cultivated to the Ecocert specification, and it extends neither to our house recipes nor to the other origins.
How you contribute
Nothing to tick, nothing to add to the basket.
- You buy a product from the catalogue. Part of the company’s profits goes to Uni Vers La Vie.
- You choose a “Solidaire” line. The purchase then directly supports an identified project: the Gondologo farm for the Burkina Faso flakes, the association’s projects for the CD Spiruchon.
- You join the association. Uni Vers La Vie lives on its memberships, its volunteers and its gatherings as much as on our donations. Details are on universlavie.org.
And if you simply want to know where the money goes, write to us: info@spirumanne.com. We answer ourselves.