diff --git a/package/php/php.mk b/package/php/php.mk
index 2997b1b7d1..8dc70f091c 100644
--- a/package/php/php.mk
+++ b/package/php/php.mk
@@ -32,9 +32,10 @@ ifeq ($(BR2_STATIC_LIBS)$(BR2_TOOLCHAIN_HAS_THREADS),yy)
 PHP_STATIC_LIBS += -lpthread
 endif
 
-ifeq ($(BR2_TARGET_LOCALTIME),)
+ifeq ($(call qstrip,$(BR2_TARGET_LOCALTIME)),)
 PHP_LOCALTIME = UTC
 else
+# Not q-stripping this value, as we need quotes in the php.ini file
 PHP_LOCALTIME = $(BR2_TARGET_LOCALTIME)
 endif