diff --git a/meta/classes-recipe/kernel.bbclass b/meta/classes-recipe/kernel.bbclass
index db4461e551..fce810a9e4 100644
--- a/meta/classes-recipe/kernel.bbclass
+++ b/meta/classes-recipe/kernel.bbclass
@@ -239,9 +239,15 @@ KERNEL_EXTRA_ARGS ?= ""
 EXTRA_OEMAKE += ' CC="${KERNEL_CC}" LD="${KERNEL_LD}" OBJCOPY="${KERNEL_OBJCOPY}" STRIP="${KERNEL_STRIP}"'
 EXTRA_OEMAKE += ' HOSTCC="${BUILD_CC}" HOSTCFLAGS="${BUILD_CFLAGS}" HOSTLDFLAGS="${BUILD_LDFLAGS}" HOSTCPP="${BUILD_CPP}"'
 EXTRA_OEMAKE += ' HOSTCXX="${BUILD_CXX}" HOSTCXXFLAGS="${BUILD_CXXFLAGS}"'
-# Only for newer kernels (5.19+), native pkg-config variables are set for older kernels when building kernel and modules
+# Only for newer kernels (5.19+), native pkg-config variables are set below for older kernels
 EXTRA_OEMAKE += ' HOSTPKG_CONFIG="pkg-config-native"'
 
+# setup native pkg-config variables (kconfig scripts call pkg-config directly, cannot generically be overriden to pkg-config-native)
+export PKG_CONFIG_DIR = "${STAGING_DIR_NATIVE}${libdir_native}/pkgconfig"
+export PKG_CONFIG_PATH = "${PKG_CONFIG_DIR}:${STAGING_DATADIR_NATIVE}/pkgconfig"
+export PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR = "${PKG_CONFIG_DIR}"
+export PKG_CONFIG_SYSROOT_DIR = ""
+
 KERNEL_ALT_IMAGETYPE ??= ""
 
 copy_initramfs() {
@@ -352,12 +358,6 @@ KERNEL_DEBUG_TIMESTAMPS ??= "0"
 kernel_do_compile() {
 	unset CFLAGS CPPFLAGS CXXFLAGS LDFLAGS MACHINE
 
-	# setup native pkg-config variables (kconfig scripts call pkg-config directly, cannot generically be overriden to pkg-config-native)
-	export PKG_CONFIG_DIR="${STAGING_DIR_NATIVE}${libdir_native}/pkgconfig"
-	export PKG_CONFIG_PATH="$PKG_CONFIG_DIR:${STAGING_DATADIR_NATIVE}/pkgconfig"
-	export PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR="$PKG_CONFIG_DIR"
-	export PKG_CONFIG_SYSROOT_DIR=""
-
 	if [ "${KERNEL_DEBUG_TIMESTAMPS}" != "1" ]; then
 		# kernel sources do not use do_unpack, so SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH may not
 		# be set....
@@ -408,12 +408,6 @@ addtask transform_kernel after do_compile before do_install
 do_compile_kernelmodules() {
 	unset CFLAGS CPPFLAGS CXXFLAGS LDFLAGS MACHINE
 
-	# setup native pkg-config variables (kconfig scripts call pkg-config directly, cannot generically be overriden to pkg-config-native)
-	export PKG_CONFIG_DIR="${STAGING_DIR_NATIVE}${libdir_native}/pkgconfig"
-	export PKG_CONFIG_PATH="$PKG_CONFIG_DIR:${STAGING_DATADIR_NATIVE}/pkgconfig"
-	export PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR="$PKG_CONFIG_DIR"
-	export PKG_CONFIG_SYSROOT_DIR=""
-
 	if [ "${KERNEL_DEBUG_TIMESTAMPS}" != "1" ]; then
 		# kernel sources do not use do_unpack, so SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH may not
 		# be set....