Definition
Dried coconut flesh, the raw material for coconut oil.
Details
Copra is the white, dried flesh extracted from the coconut (Cocos nucifera), containing 60 to 70% fat. Producing it is a traditional craft in the Comoros: the ripe nut is opened, the flesh removed and then dried in the sun or in an oven over several days until its moisture content falls below 6%. Cold- or hot-pressed, copra yields coconut oil for food and cosmetics, plus a solid by-product (copra cake) used as livestock feed. The copra trade historically shaped the economies of the Indian Ocean islands. In the Comoros, turning it into oil by hand is still practised in coastal villages, keeping an ancestral skill alive.