The fur trade has long been of considerable value to the Chinese economy (in the first half of 1934 the sale of furs from China brought in over $US 23 million, more than either tea of silk). Adult pandas are killed for their pelts. The panda’s distinctive black-and-white skin is valued as rugs, sleeping mats, wall hangings, and coat. Southern Chinese dealers and entrepreneurs dazzle farmers with offers of $2000 to $4000 for a panda skin. The main markets appear to be Japan and Taiwan, where one pelt can bring from $10000 to 100000 on the black market. According to a Sunday Times report in August 1983, a Taiwanese company was offering skins for sale at $US 25000 each, and conservationists called for strong action by the Chinese to stamp out of trade. Hunting of pandas had already been outlawed by the 1962 Act (see Actions Plans). In Wolong a farmer who accidentally trapped a panda in a snare set for musk deer had received a two-year jail sentence, but with such huge potential profits to be made, many peasants in remote areas must have been tempted. Chinese government punished those people who had killed pandas harshly. Apparently undeterred poachers killed forty pandas in 1988. A 1989 article reports that Chinese officials have retrieved 150 panda skins from poachers in the past few years.