diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 892794a..a5534ec 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -1,8 +1,9 @@
 from setuptools import setup, find_packages
+from io import open
 import os
 
 version = '2.1~dev'
-ldesc = open(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), 'README.rst')).read()
+ldesc = open(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), 'README.rst'), encoding='utf8').read()
 
 setup(name='confiture',
       version=version,