diff --git a/tools/packaging/scripts/lib.sh b/tools/packaging/scripts/lib.sh
index 1ed7b50037..8f4ba5e1cd 100644
--- a/tools/packaging/scripts/lib.sh
+++ b/tools/packaging/scripts/lib.sh
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@ get_from_kata_deps() {
 	local dependency="$1"
 	versions_file="${this_script_dir}/../../../versions.yaml"
 
+	command -v yq &> /dev/null || die 'yq command is not in your $PATH'
 	result=$("yq" read -X "$versions_file" "$dependency")
 	[ "$result" = "null" ] && result=""
 	echo "$result"