Both coffees are used by roasters, Ms. Georgakis said, but there has been a tightness in supplies of the higher-quality Arabica coffee.
Arabica prices are also depressed, but remain above their 14-year lows reached last October.
The other is a dearth of mild Arabica coffees.
Consuming countries for months have been complaining about the inability to obtain greater supplies of more flavorful Arabica coffees because of the rigidity of quotas.
London Fox plans to launch an Arabica coffee futures contract to trade alongside futures on the lower-quality robusta coffee.
But average U.S. retail prices of ground coffee are still about 3.5 times higher than top-notch Arabica futures prices of 84 cents a pound, analysts say.
Robusta coffee, grown mainly in Africa, is a poorer quality coffee that trades at a discount to Arabica.
Arabica COFFEE was lower at midday in New York after scoring life-of-contract lows across the board in early trading.