diff --git a/tools/packaging/scripts/apply_patches.sh b/tools/packaging/scripts/apply_patches.sh
index ada89e76ec..98d5b02816 100755
--- a/tools/packaging/scripts/apply_patches.sh
+++ b/tools/packaging/scripts/apply_patches.sh
@@ -45,6 +45,6 @@ if [ -d "$patches_dir" ]; then
 	done
 else
 	echo "INFO: Patches directory does not exist: ${patches_dir}"
-	echo "INFO: Create a ${patches_dir}/no_patches file if the current qemu version has no patches"
+	echo "INFO: Create a ${patches_dir}/no_patches file if the current version has no patches"
 	exit 1;
 fi
diff --git a/tools/packaging/scripts/patch_qemu.sh b/tools/packaging/scripts/patch_qemu.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..91fa5d76a6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/packaging/scripts/patch_qemu.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+#
+# Copyright (c) 2021 Intel Corporation
+#
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+
+set -o errexit
+set -o nounset
+set -o pipefail
+set -o errtrace
+
+script_dir=$(dirname $(readlink -f "$0"))
+handle_error() {
+	local exit_code="${?}"
+	local line_number="${1:-}"
+	echo "error:"
+	echo "Failed at $line_number: ${BASH_COMMAND}"
+	exit "${exit_code}"
+}
+trap 'handle_error $LINENO' ERR
+
+usage(){
+	echo "$0 <qemu_version> <patches_dir>"
+}
+
+qemu_version="${1:-}"
+[ "${qemu_version}" == "" ] && usage && exit 1
+
+patches_dir="${2:-}"
+[ "${patches_dir}" == "" ] && usage && exit 1
+
+apply_patches="${script_dir}/apply_patches.sh"
+
+stable_branch=$(cat VERSION | awk 'BEGIN{FS=OFS="."}{print $1 "." $2 ".x"}')
+patch_version=$(cat VERSION | awk 'BEGIN{FS=OFS="."}{print $3}')
+
+if (( $patch_version >= 50));then
+	echo "Found qemu dev version: Qemu uses patch version +50 to identify new development tree."
+	echo "Patches for base version ${stable_branch} are not used for $(cat VERSION)"
+else
+	echo "Apply patches for base version ${stable_branch}"
+	"${apply_patches}" "${patches_dir}/${stable_branch}"
+fi
+
+echo "Apply patches for specific qemu version ${qemu_version}"
+"${apply_patches}" "${patches_dir}/tag_patches/${qemu_version}"
diff --git a/tools/packaging/static-build/qemu/Dockerfile b/tools/packaging/static-build/qemu/Dockerfile
index 0165bcbc77..240b2464c5 100644
--- a/tools/packaging/static-build/qemu/Dockerfile
+++ b/tools/packaging/static-build/qemu/Dockerfile
@@ -63,13 +63,9 @@ RUN git clone https://github.com/qemu/keycodemapdb.git ui/keycodemapdb
 ADD scripts/configure-hypervisor.sh /root/configure-hypervisor.sh
 ADD qemu /root/kata_qemu
 ADD scripts/apply_patches.sh /root/apply_patches.sh
+ADD scripts/patch_qemu.sh /root/patch_qemu.sh
 
-RUN echo "Apply patches for base version"
-RUN stable_branch=$(cat VERSION | awk 'BEGIN{FS=OFS="."}{print $1 "." $2 ".x"}') && \
-	/root/apply_patches.sh "/root/kata_qemu/patches/${stable_branch}"
-
-RUN echo "Apply patches for specific qemu version"
-RUN /root/apply_patches.sh "/root/kata_qemu/patches/tag_patches/${QEMU_VERSION}"
+RUN /root/patch_qemu.sh "${QEMU_VERSION}" "/root/kata_qemu/patches"
 
 ARG PREFIX
 ARG BUILD_SUFFIX