diff --git a/gateway/src/apicast/configuration_loader.lua b/gateway/src/apicast/configuration_loader.lua
index 11ab3c2f2..5e1669a92 100644
--- a/gateway/src/apicast/configuration_loader.lua
+++ b/gateway/src/apicast/configuration_loader.lua
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@ end
 -- For this reason a new process needs to be started to download the configuration through 3scale API
 function _M.run_external_command(cmd, cwd)
   local config, err, code = util.system(format('cd %s && libexec/%s',
-    cwd or env.get('TEST_NGINX_APICAST_PATH') or '.',
+    cwd or env.get('APICAST_DIR') or env.get('TEST_NGINX_APICAST_PATH') or '.',
     cmd or 'boot'))
 
   -- Try to read the file in current working directory before changing to the prefix.