Copra - Definition and Overview

Copra is the dried meat, or kernel, of the coconut. The name derives from koppara, the Malayalam word for dried coconut. Copra is the commercial form of coconut from which coconut oil is extracted by boiling and pressing. It was developed as a commercial product by merchants in the South Seas and South Asia in the 1860s.

Making copra — removing the shell, breaking up, drying — is done where the palms grow. Large plantations with integrated operations have appeared, but as in former years, most copra is collected by traders going from island to island and port to port in the Pacific Ocean. Copra is not to be mistaken as the scientific name for coconut (Cocos nucifera Linnaeus, Arecaceae or palm family); the coconut is the seed from which copra comes; copra has to be made.

See also

• List of English words of Indian origin