Paraguay Loves Mickey, Its Cartoon Mouse. Disney Doesn’t.

Mickey, a homegrown food-packaging company, is famous for facing down Disney in Paraguay’s Supreme Court. As the family business turns 90, why is it still so popular?

Mickey, a homegrown food-packaging company, is famous for facing down Disney in Paraguay’s Supreme Court. As the family business turns 90, why is it still so popular?

Mickey, a Paraguayan company’s popular mascot, greeting families, taking photos and handing out food samples in a grocery store in Luque, Paraguay. Credit...

One is a colossus spanning theme parks, merchandise and movies, with 150 Academy Awards, 225,000 employees and annual revenue of nearly $90 billion.

The other is a third-generation family firm with 280 workers that packages hot sauce, soy beans, multicolored sprinkles, a herb called horsetail, six varieties of panettone and seven kinds of salt for sale in Paraguayan supermarkets.

Yet Mickey (MEE-kay) is a household name to rival Disney across the little-touristed South American nation of 6.1 million. In fact, a visitor might assume they’re partners.

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