The tea planter provides material for shoes (6,7)
I believe the answer is:
patent leather
'material for shoes' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot understand how they can define each other.
'the tea planter provides' is the wordplay.
'provides' indicates anagramming the letters.
'the'+'tea'+'planter'='theteaplanter'
'theteaplanter' with letters rearranged gives 'PATENT LEATHER'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for patent leather that I've seen before include "Varnished hide" , "it will present a varnished surface" , "Tanned animal skin made hard and glossy" , "Glossy shoe material" , "shiny skin" .)