Fruity bureaucrats? (9)

I believe the answer is:

mandarins

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'fruity bureaucrats?' is the definition.
'mandarins' can be an answer for 'bureaucrats?' (mandarin can mean a powerful bureaucrat). I am not sure about the 'fruity' bit.

'fruity bureaucrats?' is the wordplay.
'fruity' becomes 'mandarin' (I've seen this before).
'bureaucrats?' becomes 's' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'mandarin'+'s'='MANDARINS'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Another definition for mandarins that I've seen is " High-ranking officials or small oranges".)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.

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