diff --git a/package/libarchive/libarchive.mk b/package/libarchive/libarchive.mk
index cd7c13fbed..2010b6529f 100644
--- a/package/libarchive/libarchive.mk
+++ b/package/libarchive/libarchive.mk
@@ -140,6 +140,8 @@ endif
 
 # The only user of host-libarchive needs zlib support
 HOST_LIBARCHIVE_DEPENDENCIES = host-zlib
+# needed for autoreconf
+HOST_LIBARCHIVE_DEPENDENCIES += host-pkgconf
 HOST_LIBARCHIVE_CONF_OPTS = \
 	--disable-bsdtar \
 	--disable-bsdcpio \