Copra is the dried meat, or dried kernel, of the coconut used to extract coconut oil. The earliest evidence of the extracting and use of coconut oil from copra is in early Tamil literature from the 1st century AD. The word originated from the Malayalam word Koppara. Coconut oil is extracted from it and this has made copra an important agricultural commodity for many coconut-producing countries. It also yields coconut cake, which is mainly used as feed for livestock.

Production

Copra has traditionally been grated and ground then boiled in water to extract coconut oil. It was used by Pacific island cultures and became a valuable commercial product for merchants in the South Seas and South Asia in the 1860s. This 19th-century copra trading inspired Robert Louis Stevenson's 1893 novella The Beach of Falesá, based on his experiences in Samoa. Nowadays, the process of coconut oil extraction is performed by crushing copra to produce coconut oil (70%); the by-product is known as copra cake or copra meal (30%).