Preserve with fruit covering papers for applicants (10)
I believe the answer is:
candidates
'for applicants' is the definition.
(candidate is a kind of applicant)
'preserve with fruit covering papers' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'preserve' could be 'can' (canning is a kind of preserving) and 'can' is found in the answer.
'fruit' could be 'dates' (type of fruit) and 'dates' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'di' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for candidates that I've seen before include "those awaiting interview?" , "Entrants" .)