diff --git a/package/tzdata/tzdata.mk b/package/tzdata/tzdata.mk
index 58b5f130e4..b619851556 100644
--- a/package/tzdata/tzdata.mk
+++ b/package/tzdata/tzdata.mk
@@ -7,7 +7,8 @@
 TZDATA_VERSION = 2014a
 TZDATA_SOURCE = tzdata$(TZDATA_VERSION).tar.gz
 TZDATA_SITE = ftp://ftp.iana.org/tz/releases
-TZDATA_DEPENDENCIES = host-zic
+TZDATA_DEPENDENCIES = host-tzdata
+HOST_TZDATA_DEPENDENCIES = host-zic
 TZDATA_LICENSE = Public domain
 
 TZDATA_DEFAULT_ZONELIST = africa antarctica asia australasia backward etcetera \
@@ -21,24 +22,12 @@ endif
 
 TZDATA_LOCALTIME = $(call qstrip,$(BR2_TARGET_LOCALTIME))
 
-# Don't strip any path components during extraction.
-define TZDATA_EXTRACT_CMDS
-	gzip -d -c $(DL_DIR)/$(TZDATA_SOURCE) \
-		| $(TAR) --strip-components=0 -C $(@D) -xf -
-endef
-
-define TZDATA_BUILD_CMDS
-	(cd $(@D); \
-		for zone in $(TZDATA_ZONELIST); do \
-			$(ZIC) -d _output/posix -y yearistype.sh $$zone; \
-			$(ZIC) -d _output/right -L leapseconds -y yearistype.sh $$zone; \
-		done; \
-	)
-endef
+# No need to extract for target, we're using the host-installed files
+TZDATA_EXTRACT_CMDS =
 
 define TZDATA_INSTALL_TARGET_CMDS
-	mkdir -p $(TARGET_DIR)/usr/share/zoneinfo
-	cp -a $(@D)/_output/* $(@D)/*.tab $(TARGET_DIR)/usr/share/zoneinfo
+	$(INSTALL) -d -m 0755 $(TARGET_DIR)/usr/share
+	cp -a $(HOST_DIR)/usr/share/zoneinfo $(TARGET_DIR)/usr/share/zoneinfo
 	cd $(TARGET_DIR)/usr/share/zoneinfo;    \
 	for zone in posix/*; do                 \
 	    ln -sfn "$${zone}" "$${zone##*/}";  \