diff --git a/fs/tar/tar.mk b/fs/tar/tar.mk
index 780827e42f..28219cf052 100644
--- a/fs/tar/tar.mk
+++ b/fs/tar/tar.mk
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
 TAR_OPTS := $(call qstrip,$(BR2_TARGET_ROOTFS_TAR_OPTIONS))
 
 define ROOTFS_TAR_CMD
-	tar -c$(TAR_OPTS)f $@ -C $(TARGET_DIR) .
+	tar -c$(TAR_OPTS)f $@ --numeric-owner -C $(TARGET_DIR) .
 endef
 
 $(eval $(call ROOTFS_TARGET,tar))