diff --git a/bin/pungi-koji b/bin/pungi-koji
index e48686eb..049eeaab 100755
--- a/bin/pungi-koji
+++ b/bin/pungi-koji
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ from pungi import get_full_version, util
 
 
 # force C locales
-locale.setlocale(locale.LC_ALL, "C")
+locale.setlocale(locale.LC_ALL, "C.UTF-8")
 
 
 COMPOSE = None