diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/libcroco/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/libcroco/package.py
index ef89961555e..254d7973b79 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/libcroco/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/libcroco/package.py
@@ -16,3 +16,4 @@ class Libcroco(AutotoolsPackage):
 
     depends_on('glib')
     depends_on('libxml2')
+    depends_on('pkgconfig', type='build')