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DHAKA, Apr 9 (Reuters) Bangladesh's exports in February rose 26.4 percent from a year earlier to $822.04 million, officials of the state-run Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) said on Sunday.

Exports for July to February, the first eight months of the 2005/06 fiscal year, were around 18 percent higher than the same year-earlier period, at $6.624 billion.

Export volume in July-February rose 21.6 percent from a year earlier.

''The knitwear sector has maintained its upward trends, which performed better than expected. Frozen foods, leather, raw jute, agricultural products and textile fabrics performed well too,'' Monoz Kumar Roy, an EPB director, told Reuters.

Knitwear exports surged 30.2 percent to $2.368 billion in the first eight month of 2005/06 from a year earlier.

Exports of knitwear products including sweaters, t-shirts, undergarments and socks to some major markets increased substantially after quotas were phased out at the end of 2004.

''We have been able to sustain our upward growth. Both capacity and productivity of the sector have increased,'' Fazlul Hoque, president of Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA), told Reuters.

''During the past 15 months, 200 more new factories have been added to the existing 4,000 number of factories and now we are using the latest technology and machinery, which helps us to compete in the international market,'' he said.

Germany is the single-largest knitwear importer from Bangladesh, where sales totalled $668 million in 2004-05.

Total earnings from knit exports were $2.82 billion in 2004-05.

Exports of woven garments rose more than 8 percent to $2.615 billion in that period from a year earlier.

Bangladesh earned $6.42 billion from textile exports in the year ended June 2005, in which total exports rose 14.5 percent to $8.7 billion from $7.6 billion a year earlier.

The ready-made garments industry generates three-quarters of Bangladesh's exports.

The textile industry is the country's biggest employer -- providing jobs for nearly 2 million workers, mostly women -- after agriculture.

Bangladesh has set an export earnings target of $10.159 billion for the year to June 2006, up 16 percent from a year earlier.

($1= 70.09 taka ) REUTERS MP PM1452