• Traditional copra farming occupies a rather special position in the atolls' economy. The atolls are responsible for more than half of the total Polynesian production, and this proportion seems to be increasing, although the overall level of activity has decreased. For example, the Tuamotu-Gambier atolls accounted for 63% of the total output in 1998, and for 73% in 1999.

Since copra production has been going on for a long time, unlike pearl farming and tourism, it is still the sole source of financial income on many of the atolls. The Territorial authorities are convinced that this activity helps to keep the local populations from leaving the atolls. Since it therefore plays both an economic and a social role, copra farming is subsidised by the public authorities.

• Financial aid and tax exemptions :
  Copra production on the atolls is heavily subsidised by the public authorities. As stated by ITSTAT in their "Tableaux de l'Economie Polynésienne": "in 1996, the financial aid awarded was practically equivalent to the value of the total output itself".
  "L'Huilerie de Tahiti" , the semi-public oil manufacturing company, 51% of which is owned by the Territory, is obliged by its statutes to purchase all the copra delivered by the farmers. The company does not export copra, but only crude and refined oil.

The policy adopted by the Territory to prevent the local populations from leaving the atolls led the authorities to set up  a fund in 1967 to  maintain the price of copra, so as to ensure that the farmers would have a stable income, although this means that the buying prices are much higher than the world market rates. Given the predicted cost of maintaining the copra prices, this fund's 2000 budget is expected to amount to 720 million Fr. CFP, based on the current estimate that the copra output is likely to reach 9 200 tonnes: this figure is 19% higher than in 1999, when it amounted to only  7464 tonnes.
Another less direct but equally efficient measure which has been taken concerns not only copra but also fishing, aquaculture, tourism and business, for example. It consists of subsidising the creation of firms via the F.A.D.I.P.  (Fonds d'aménagement et de développement des îles de la Polynésie française), which provides financial backing sometimes amounting to as much as 80% of the total sum invested. The whole of Polynesia is eligible for this form of subsidy, apart from the islands of Tahiti et Moorea.
The main goal is always to encourage the development of economic, social and cultural activities in the outlying archipelagos in order to persuade the populations to stay where they are.
As far as copra is concerned, the subsidy takes the form of a bonus paid per kilo of harvested and prepared copra.

At the copra processing level, the "Laboratoire de Cosmétologie du Pacifique Sud", a highly active company dealing in the export of the Tahitian monoi which now has its own original trade-mark, has benefited from the tax relief measures taken with regard to raw materials which have to be processed. Thanks to these measures, the firm certainly intends to reduce its production costs and  become more competitive on the export market.