The garment exporters attributed this slow growth to the labour unrest in the sector, which occurred in May this year.

According to the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), the export growth of two major foreign exchange earners-- woven and knitwear--slowed significantly to 9 percent and 5 percent respectively in the month of October.

The rise in exports of woven garments was 31 percent, while knitwear exports grew 35 percent. But in the month of October, it come down to 22.70 percent and 30.14 percent respectively.

"We lost huge export orders during the labour unrest in the garment sector. Buyers felt worried to place orders in Bangladesh," said SM Fazlul Hoque, president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), while talking to The Daily Star yesterday.

"As a result, we lost to our competitors who gained huge orders," he said, adding that export orders that were placed to Vietnam, one of Bangladesh's competitors, grew more than 40 percent during the period.

Echoing the BGMEA president, Fazlul Haque, president of Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (Bkmea) said, "This is basically the effect of labour unrest which started on May 2006 and continued for several months, which drastically hampered our business."

He said, "It was the time while foreign buyers are used to place their orders in Bangladesh. But we had to miss most of the orders at that time as because many buyers shifted their orders to another country due to labour unrest".

Terming the shortfall 'very natural', he said no buyers feel interested to place their orders in an unstable business environment.

"We are awaiting another shortfall of exports in February 2006, which may happen because of political deadlock that we have been facing for the last few months," he feared.

Apart from woven and knitwear, export earning from frozen food, home textile, footwear, petroleum by-products, ceramic products, handicrafts, cut flower, agro processed goods and engineering products also saw a steady growth during the July-October period.

The growth of exports of pharmaceuticals, chemical fertilizers, vegetables, tobacco, jute goods have declined and also failed to achieve the target during the period.