Copra is the dried meat, or kernel, of the coconut. The name copra, is derived from the Malayalam word koppara for dried coconut. Copra is not to be mistaken as the scientific name for coconut (Cocos nucifera Linnaeus, Arecaceae or palm family)

Coconut oil is extracted by grounding copra. 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 — usually is done where the palms grow. Today, large plantations with integrated operations have appeared, but in the former years, copra was collected by traders going from island to island and port to port in the Pacific Ocean.