Like selling french fries to rice fanciers…

When Gov. Butch Otter was looking ahead to this week’s trade mission to Cuba, he noted that in his past work as a Simplot Corp. exec, he’d done lots of pushing to get Idaho products into far-off markets. “Dealing with governments, getting our products across those borders, I know how to do that,” Otter told reporters last month. “Getting french fries into McDonald’s in Japan, which is a rice-based economy, was one of my toughest jobs, but we did it – and I think I can do that for a lot of Idaho products.”