Copra is the dried meat, or kernel, of the coconut. Coconut oil extracted from it 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.

Copra has traditionally been grated and ground then boiled in water to extract coconut oil. It was long 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 done by crushing copra to produce coconut oil (70%); the by-product is known as copra cake or copra meal (30%).

Once the oil is extracted, the remaining coconut cake is 18-25% protein but contains so much dietary fiber it can not be eaten in large quantities by humans. Instead it is normally fed to ruminants.