CALASIAO – Cheap China-made kites of different colors and shapes are selling like hot cakes in Calasiao, giving extra income to some marginal income families only a few days before Christmas.

The kites, made with bamboo frames and soft plastic materials stretched over them, are a sight to behold as they at least lend color to the drab atmosphere on both sides of the Jose R. de Venecia Highway from Calasiao to Dagupan City.

These are displayed and sold in makeshift shops in barangay Lasip Chico, Calasiao at P50 apiece, without the string, cheaper than the locally-made ones.

Being supplied in bulk by a Chinese merchant on Rizal street in Dagupan, these kites were imported along with many other commodities from China.

The supplier dumps the product to different families for sale, with the sellers remitting only the capital and a little margin of profit to him while the seller keeps the rest of the profit.

Trinidad Siapno, 54, one among those whose families ekes out a living by selling kites to motorists, admits that selling of kites at this time of the year, is very brisk considering that this month and the next are the best season to fly kites.

That is why, she said, they are in business only for the months of November and December when the wind flow from the Lingayen Gulf is just mild as compared with that during the other months of the year. “Motorists stop any time of the day and buy kites from us to be given to their kids as gifts,” said Siapno. (PNA)