diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 0e0b4909..a432c60e 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 # ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 RESIN_SCRIPTS ?= ./scripts/resin
-NPM_VERSION ?= 6.7.0
+export NPM_VERSION ?= 6.7.0
 S3_BUCKET = artifacts.ci.balena-cloud.com
 
 # This directory will be completely deleted by the `clean` rule