Crop producer phoned in “O to be in France, free at last” (6,4)

I believe the answer is:

orange tree

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'crop producer' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both plants as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?

'phoned in o to be in france free at last' is the wordplay.
'phoned' becomes 'rang' ('ring' can be a synonym of 'phone').
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'to be in france' becomes 'et' (I've seen this in other clues).
'free at last' becomes 'ree' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'o'+'et'='oet'
'rang' placed inside 'oet' is 'oranget'.
'oranget'+'ree'='ORANGE-TREE'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for orange tree that I've seen before include "orchard feature" , "Jaffa-bearing growth" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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