diff --git a/pkgs/development/haskell-modules/generic-builder.nix b/pkgs/development/haskell-modules/generic-builder.nix
index 04973d3251e6..a9692b5a0f01 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/haskell-modules/generic-builder.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/haskell-modules/generic-builder.nix
@@ -181,7 +181,8 @@ let
   ] ++ optionals (!isHaLVM) [
     "--hsc2hs-option=--cross-compile"
     (optionalString enableHsc2hsViaAsm "--hsc2hs-option=--via-asm")
-  ];
+  ] ++ optional (allPkgconfigDepends != [])
+    "--with-pkg-config=${pkg-config.targetPrefix}pkg-config";
 
   parallelBuildingFlags = "-j$NIX_BUILD_CORES" + optionalString stdenv.isLinux " +RTS -A64M -RTS";