Copra

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Copra is the dried meat, or kernel, of the coconut. The name derives from khopra, the Hindi word for 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. Do not be mistaken by the name copra; it is not a scientific name for a coconut. The coconut is the seed from which copra comes; copra has to be made.