diff --git a/plugins/pulp_rpm/plugins/importers/yum/upload.py b/plugins/pulp_rpm/plugins/importers/yum/upload.py
index eb9b52d..4534483 100644
--- a/plugins/pulp_rpm/plugins/importers/yum/upload.py
+++ b/plugins/pulp_rpm/plugins/importers/yum/upload.py
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ from pulp_rpm.plugins import error_codes
 from pulp_rpm.plugins.importers.yum import purge, utils
 from pulp_rpm.plugins.importers.yum.parse import rpm as rpm_parse
 from pulp_rpm.plugins.importers.yum.repomd import primary, group, packages
+from pulp_rpm.yum_plugin.util import string_to_unicode
 
 
 # this is required because some of the pre-migration XML tags use the "rpm"
@@ -568,7 +569,7 @@ def _extract_rpm_data(type_id, rpm_filename):
     rpm_data['buildhost'] = headers['buildhost']
     rpm_data['license'] = headers['license']
     rpm_data['vendor'] = headers['vendor']
-    rpm_data['description'] = headers['description']
+    rpm_data['description'] = string_to_unicode(headers['description'])
     rpm_data['build_time'] = headers[rpm.RPMTAG_BUILDTIME]
     # Use the mtime of the file to match what is in the generated xml from
     # rpm_parse.get_package_xml(..)