Drawing on interviews and group discussions with the primary participants on ZAMACE, five main factors that impede volumes traded on the ZAMACE exchange are identified and analyzed: (1) the limited success in attracting financial institutions鈥?commitment to commodity exchanges; (2) the anonymous nature of trading on a commodity exchange exacerbates the risks associated with contract non-compliance and opportunistic behavior; (3) the potential for conflict of interest among brokers; (4) the potential for market manipulation in a thinly traded market; and (5) the high fixed costs that are imposed on actors trading in a thin market. Exacerbating all these factors is the unpredictability of government intervention in cereal markets.