diff --git a/package/cmake/cmake.mk b/package/cmake/cmake.mk
index a776b147e0..95c73c036b 100644
--- a/package/cmake/cmake.mk
+++ b/package/cmake/cmake.mk
@@ -10,7 +10,6 @@ CMAKE_SITE = https://cmake.org/files/v$(CMAKE_VERSION_MAJOR)
 CMAKE_LICENSE = BSD-3c
 CMAKE_LICENSE_FILES = Copyright.txt
 
-HOST_CMAKE_DEPENDENCIES = host-pkgconf
 CMAKE_DEPENDENCIES = zlib jsoncpp libcurl libarchive expat bzip2 xz
 
 CMAKE_CONF_OPTS = \
diff --git a/package/pkg-cmake.mk b/package/pkg-cmake.mk
index 9291523eab..4c6dc62270 100644
--- a/package/pkg-cmake.mk
+++ b/package/pkg-cmake.mk
@@ -142,6 +142,10 @@ endef
 endif
 endif
 
+# Since some CMake modules (even upstream ones) use pgk_check_modules
+# primitives to find {C,LD}FLAGS, add it to the dependency list.
+$(2)_DEPENDENCIES += host-pkgconf
+
 $(2)_DEPENDENCIES += host-cmake
 
 #