diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/libvips/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/libvips/package.py
index 95f7cf08ae8..6a6596dadd6 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/libvips/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/libvips/package.py
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ class Libvips(AutotoolsPackage):
 
     # TODO: Add more variants!
 
+    depends_on("pkgconfig", type="build")
     depends_on("glib")
     depends_on("expat")