COPRA, the dried, broken kernel of the coconut, from which coco-nut oil is extracted by boiling and pressing. Copra is the form in which the product of the coco-nut is exported for com mercial purposes. It is dried in the sun or in kilns to prevent putrefaction. The oil is used largely in the soap, margarine and candle trades. The total annual production, mostly in the oriental tropics, is estimated at about 4,500,000,000 lb., with a plantation value of about 145,000,000. The Philippine Islands are among the foremost producers, the total production in 1926 exceeding 800,000,000 pounds. The imports of copra into Great Britain amounted in 1926 to 74,372 tons valued at £2,12 7, 210 ; for the same year the imports into the United States were 204,312 tons valued at f4,838,065. The word copra is a Spanish-Portuguese adaptation of the Malay word Kopperah (Hindustani Khopra), the coco-nut. (See COCONUT; OILS AND FATS.)