diff --git a/package/flutter-engine/flutter-engine.mk b/package/flutter-engine/flutter-engine.mk
index d08274f546..876718eb12 100644
--- a/package/flutter-engine/flutter-engine.mk
+++ b/package/flutter-engine/flutter-engine.mk
@@ -170,6 +170,7 @@ endif
 
 # Generate a tarball if one does not already exist.
 define FLUTTER_ENGINE_GENERATE_TARBALL
+	TAR="$(TAR)" \
 	PATH=$(HOST_DIR)/share/depot_tools:$(BR_PATH) \
 	PYTHONPATH=$(HOST_DIR)/lib/python$(PYTHON3_VERSION_MAJOR) \
 	PUB_CACHE=$(FLUTTER_SDK_BIN_PUB_CACHE) \
diff --git a/package/flutter-engine/gen-tarball b/package/flutter-engine/gen-tarball
index 2d2117b9be..23b121d1f9 100755
--- a/package/flutter-engine/gen-tarball
+++ b/package/flutter-engine/gen-tarball
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ gen_tarball() {
     # - it insists on having a full git repositoy, with .git et al., which means
     #   we can't generate a reproducible archive anyway.
     # So we jsut create a plain tarball.
-    tar -C "${SCRATCH_DIR}"/src -czf "${TARBALL_NAME}" .
+    ${TAR} -C "${SCRATCH_DIR}"/src -czf "${TARBALL_NAME}" .
     mv "${TARBALL_NAME}" "${TARBALL_DL_PATH}"
 }