THE beleaguered Chinese company that made news last year paying its bond investors in ham instead of cash has a new problem: it’s running low on pigs.

The cash crunch that left Chuying Agro-Pastoral Group Co. unable to service some of its debt has now intensified to the point that it’s unable to buy enough feed, according to an announcement on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

It’s the latest twist for the small-cap company that’s been challenged on multiple fronts, from the spread of African swine fever – which has seen more than 900,000 hogs culled across the country – to an economic slowdown to a deleveraging drive by policymakers that’s tightened credit flows to weaker borrowers.

The Zhengzhou-based company revised its 2018 performance forecast to a net loss of 2.9 billion yuan (US$433 million) to 3.3 billion yuan, wider than previously anticipated, it said in a company statement.

More pain may be looming: Chuying Agro has 2.3 billion yuan of bonds it needs to repay this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Chuying Agro said last November that holders of 271 million yuan of its debt agreed to take ham or pork gift packages instead of interest payments.

(SD-Agencies)