diff --git a/conda-recipe/meta.yaml b/conda-recipe/meta.yaml
index 44ae591..7d354ae 100644
--- a/conda-recipe/meta.yaml
+++ b/conda-recipe/meta.yaml
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ requirements:
   - q2templates {{ qiime2_epoch }}.*
   - q2-types {{ qiime2_epoch }}.*
   build:
+  - python {{ python }}
   - setuptools
   - versioningit
 test: