Copra price today: what moves it and where to check it

Anyone searching for the copra price today tends to land on a number with no date. In a field notebook, a figure like that does not get written down. This note prints no price. It explains what moves the copra price, how to work out a copra price per kg from a dollar quote, and where to look for prices that carry a date.

Why we do not print the copra price today

Prices change, and this page cannot follow them every day. One stale figure does more harm than none. A reader may bid or sell against a price that has already gone.

A price worth trusting carries five details:

• Date. The day and, if needed, the hour.
• Delivery point. The collector’s store, the mill gate or on board a ship.
• Grade. The moisture and defect limits applied.
• Unit. Rupiah per kg or dollars per tonne.
• Buyer. A collector, a wholesaler, a mill or an exporter.

A figure missing one of these cannot yet be compared. That is why a “copra price per kg” in an old news item and one heard in the market often disagree.

What moves the copra price

No single thing moves it. Below is what the sources we read say, and what is still general reasoning.

1. Who sets the price. A Philippine study by Rivera and Lantican (2010), read 22 Oct 2026, found that 79 per cent of surveyed farmers said the buying price followed the prevailing price. About 89 per cent said the buyer set it. That is the Philippines, not Indonesia. Still, the same pattern of farmers following mill and trader prices shows up in a small survey in Central Maluku (Lumasiang et al., 2023, 15 farmers, read 22 Oct 2026), which calls the copra selling price often unstable.

2. Moisture. The Philippine PCA rule, as quoted in BAFS Technical Bulletin No. 09 (read 22 Oct 2026), trades copra at 6.0 per cent moisture at the base price. Moisture from 6.1 to 13.9 per cent is discounted, and 14 per cent and above is rejected. Indonesian practice differs, but the logic is the same: the wetter the copra, the bigger the deduction.

3. How it is checked. Rivera and Lantican also report that sales made with a moisture meter averaged a higher price than sales judged by eye (PhP18.53 against PhP17.21 per kg, 2005 data). About 82 per cent of sales in that survey were judged by eye. The figures do not transfer to Indonesia, but the lesson holds: a measured check changes the price paid.

4. How the copra was dried. Copra can be sun-dried, smoked or oven-dried, and buyers pay differently. See the note on white copra and run-of-mine copra.

5. Oil prices and mill demand. Coconut oil mills are the main buyers of copra, so the coconut oil price helps shape mill offers. This is general reasoning. We found no recent Indonesian study that measures how strong the link is. The ICC price list (below) puts the oil series and the copra series side by side, so you can watch both.

6. Weather and season. Sun-dried copra depends on the weather. Supply and quality can shift in the rains. This too is general reasoning, not a figure.

7. The chain of traders. Each link takes freight, sacks, shrinkage and a margin. The price at a mill gate and the price in the village will not match. The chain is sketched on the supply chain page.

From dollars per tonne to rupiah per kg

Many copra price series use dollars per metric tonne. The formula is short:

price per kg (rupiah) = price per tonne (dollars) × rupiah per dollar ÷ 1,000

A worked example with invented numbers, not market prices: if a series says 500 dollars per tonne and the rate is 10,000 rupiah per dollar, the result is 5,000 rupiah per kg. Use the rate for the same day as the price date.

That result is the price at the point the series names. Freight, quality deductions and trader margins are not taken off. So do not treat it as the farm-gate price.

Where to find a dated copra price

Source	What it holds	Note
ICC Weekly Price Update	Dollar-per-tonne prices for copra, coconut oil and other coconut products, with monthly PDF archives	Read 22 Oct 2026; the page showed an update dated 17 October 2026. Indonesian prices come from an ICC survey of Indonesian coconut stakeholders
ICC table, August 2026	Lists a copra series for Indonesia, “Domestic, Industry Use”, by week	Read 22 Oct 2026. We do not copy its figures; this is not a price page
A buyer’s written offer	Price, delivery point and quality limits for your lot	Ask two or three buyers on the same day

We found no open, dated, daily copra price source for Indonesia other than the ICC series above. We may have missed one. If you know of one, tell us through the contact page.

The ICC series is an industry-use price in Indonesia, not a farm-gate price. Use it as a guide to direction, then check it against real offers.

How to compare two copra price offers

Put the two offers in one table with the same rows.

1. Offer date and how long it stays valid.
2. Delivery point and who pays freight.
3. Moisture limit and the method used to measure it.
4. The deduction rule if a result is over the limit.
5. Weight basis: at the seller’s store or on arrival.
6. Payment terms.

A low price on a vague weight basis can end up costing more. The clauses are covered in the note on the copra purchase contract. To judge the seller, read proof to ask a new copra supplier for.

Prices from Kora

Kora, one of the producers discussed on this site, does not post prices here. It lists FOB or CIF Indonesian port as its Incoterms, and prices come in a written quotation. The quality figures Kora publishes are on the copra from Kora page. For a quotation, send the grade, volume and destination through the contact page.