Crossword Genius

Source of chocolate is California, and California’s outskirts mainly (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

cacao

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'source of chocolate' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'california and california's outskirts mainly' is the wordplay.
'california' becomes 'ca'.
'and' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'california' becomes 'ca'.
'outskirts mainly' becomes 'o' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'ca'+'ca'+'o'='CACAO'

'is' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for cacao that I've seen before include "Plant" , "Tree yielding chocolate" , "Tree for cocoa bean" , "Tree from which chocolate is made" , "Tropical tree, the source of chocolate" .)

I've seen this clue in The Hindu.
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