diff --git a/fs/tar/tar.mk b/fs/tar/tar.mk
index c93888cd56..f876d03f56 100644
--- a/fs/tar/tar.mk
+++ b/fs/tar/tar.mk
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 #
 ################################################################################
 
-TAR_OPTS := $(BR2_TARGET_ROOTFS_TAR_OPTIONS)
+TAR_OPTS := $(call qstrip,$(BR2_TARGET_ROOTFS_TAR_OPTIONS))
 
 define ROOTFS_TAR_CMD
  tar -c$(TAR_OPTS)f $@ -C $(TARGET_DIR) .