A spokesman of the Exporters Association confirmed that many were considering moving their industries into Bangladesh, Vietnam and some other Indian cities to overcome present high air charges, strikes at the sea ports and other high levies imposed by the Government of Sri Lanka.

"Some of Asian countries have offered very attractive trade conditions and concessions for the investors,” said an exporter, who is presently involved in apparel and ceramic industry. They said that Colombo is not a safer place to do business.

Earlier the Association of Live Tropical Fish Exporters said that they lost over millions of rupees, due to the non-availability of air cargo spaces for their commodities in the International Air Lines.

The industry earns millions of dollars through ornamental fish and aquatic plants export.

Earlier local clothing exporters threatened to take legal action against striking port unions amid moves by feeder vessel operators to hike rates to recover the losses they have incurred due to their inability to meet buyers' deadlines.

On the other hand, manufacturers are losing millions because they are forced to airfreight finished goods to meet tight deadlines of buyers.

"Each day, we ship around 10 million dollars of goods and import about 5-million dollars worth of raw materials. There are also delays in air freighting goods because of the backlog in the port," said a spokesman.