diff --git a/libguestfs.spec.in b/libguestfs.spec.in
index 99a77980b..4a9d40572 100644
--- a/libguestfs.spec.in
+++ b/libguestfs.spec.in
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ BuildRequires: /usr/bin/pod2man
 BuildRequires: /usr/bin/pod2text
 BuildRequires: febootstrap >= 1.5
 BuildRequires: augeas-devel
+BuildRequires: qemu
 
 # If you want to build the bindings for different languages:
 BuildRequires: ocaml