diff --git a/meta/classes-recipe/qemu.bbclass b/meta/classes-recipe/qemu.bbclass
index 874b15127c..dbb5ee0b66 100644
--- a/meta/classes-recipe/qemu.bbclass
+++ b/meta/classes-recipe/qemu.bbclass
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ def qemu_wrapper_cmdline(data, rootfs_path, library_paths):
     if qemu_binary == "qemu-allarch":
         qemu_binary = "qemuwrapper"
 
-    qemu_options = data.getVar("QEMU_OPTIONS")    
+    qemu_options = data.getVar("QEMU_OPTIONS") or ""
 
     return "PSEUDO_UNLOAD=1 " + qemu_binary + " " + qemu_options + " -L " + rootfs_path\
             + " -E LD_LIBRARY_PATH=" + ":".join(library_paths) + " "