Henkel: Only strawberry pickers are driving construction sector

German group Henkel, the biggest adhesives producer on the Romanian market, says in the absence of foreign investments in real estate, sales largely came from small renovation works carried out mostly with money sent home by Romanian workers abroad. Since the majority of those working abroad come from rural areas, where homes do not have bathrooms or kitchens, the market's growth potential is still high on medium term.

"Housing standards are very low in rural areas, because most houses don't have a bathroom or a kitchen. The first thing Romanian workers from rural areas working abroad do when they come back home is build a bathroom. This creates the premises for market growth in 2011-2012," says Andrei Dumitrescu, sales and marketing manager of Henkel's Adhesives Division, which posts around 70-80 million euros in annual turnover, according to the latest available estimates.

He believes the money sent by Romanians working abroad is the most important for the construction industry, although overall amounts sent home fell by 34% in April, to 330 million euros, compared with the similar period of 2009.