IFEAT Conciliation

Paper presented at the IFEAT International Conference in Marrakech, 26 - 30 Sept. 2010 ‘North African and Mediterranean Essential Oils
and Aromas: 2010 Tales and Realities of our Industry – a new decade of challenges and opportunities’
Pages 365-366 in the printed Conference Proceedings.
IFEAT CONCILIATION SERVICE
Dr Wladyslaw S. Brud
IFEAT Executive Committee
At the very early stages of IFEAT development one of the main targets of the organisation was
elaboration of a standard contract, which could be used by growers, distillers, dealers and end users of
essential oils and related products. After some time it appeared that it was very difficult or impossible
to achieve a consensus in that matter. Many large companies, especially compounders and dealers,
have had their own standard contracts and were not interested in any changes.
After several years on the basis of few cases of disputes between Federation members I proposed the
formation of a conciliation service which would help members of IFEAT to solve any problems,
difficulties or disputes which may have arisen between them in a friendly and simple way without the
engagement of lawyers, courts and unnecessary expenses.
IFEAT Conciliation Service was not intended as any kind of legal court or formal arbitrary institution.
It is based on the goodwill of the interested parties – IFEAT members.
It is a principal of the IFEAT Conciliation Service that at the end there is no winner or loser. Good
business partners should endeavour to find a satisfactory solution to problems which may occur with
the assistance of the IFEAT Conciliators.
The Conciliators would be nominated by the IFEAT Executive Committee from senior, most respected
and experienced members of IFEAT known for their understanding of the industry, experience in
business, trading and their position in the Federation.
In 2003 a Conciliation Committee was established chaired by Dr Wladyslaw S. Brud with Ramon
Bordas, Hugo Bovill, Alastair Hitchen, Richard Pisano and Katrina Neale as members. This
365

Committee would supervise and be responsible for maintaining the list of suitable members of the
Conciliation Panel.
Basic regulations were elaborated by myself and the Committee with the important help of Ron Neal.
These were based on few simple rules:
1. IFEAT will offer services of the Conciliators to IFEAT Members who need them.
2. The Conciliator(s) once agreed by the parties will act on their own responsibility and by no
means will represent or act on behalf of IFEAT. Also, they cannot be responsible for any
possible consequences, financial and legal, which may appear as result of their conclusions
and proposals.
In other words, the idea of the Conciliation Service was to offer IFEAT members easily accessible,
simple and a nearly no cost way of solving problems and disputes which are very often based on minor
misunderstandings, inexperience and other unimportant reasons. The Conciliators, selected by
interested parties from the above mentioned panel would use their experience to study the case and
propose a solution that can be accepted by the adversaries. If that were impossible to achieve an
agreement on this proposal then a standard arbitration or court would be a further way to solve the
problem.
Since its formation the Conciliation Committee was only engaged two or three times in members’
disputes. In all those cases, when conciliation service was requested by one of the members, usually a
simple letter to the other party resulted in very fast and amicable solution of the problem between the
parties involved. It appeared that members preferred direct agreement without being involved in the
procedure, which although fully confidential, could affect their image in IFEAT.
Considering fundamental goals of the Conciliation Committee it is good for Federation when it is
inactive and has no problems to solve. But it is there available for members to use in case of necessity.
All rules and procedures of the Conciliation Committee are available on IFEAT Members web pages,
and when members require conciliation the Chairman of the Committee can be approached via IFEAT
Secretariat.
366