Shawarma - a 200m-euro business per year

Romanians pay over half a million euros for shawarmas every day, a market worth 200 million euros per year, i.e. 10% of the overall fast food market in Romania, writes BUSINESS Magazin weekly.

Romanian shawarma places sell 220,000 shawarmas that cost 10 RON (2.5 euros) every day of the year, because they offer cheap and readily available food, as sociologist Mircea Kivu said. "There are young people who go out and come back from clubs feeling hungry, and there are taxi drivers and other workers who start or end their shift. And shawarma places give them exactly what they want: a cheap and readily available meal."

"Friends told me I was crazy, but I reckon I have a niche: a shawarma that isn't cheap, but similar to what I saw in Syria or in other Arab countries I have been to. I believe I am the only one to use Heinz ketchup. They themselves were surprised when I told them I was using it for shawarma. Moreover, apart from the four regular sauces (sweet and spicy ketchup, garlic-flavoured or regular mayonnaise), I have another nine sauces whose recipes I have adapted," says Razvan, manager of "La Haleala" shawarma place.

"La Haleala" sells around 300-400 shawarmas a day, with a peak on Friday night. If one shawarma costs 14 RON, this amounts to more than 1,000 euros a day for the small, 60 square-metre shop, which employs four.