diff --git a/recipe/bld.bat b/recipe/bld.bat
index 0cc86e66..77a2a6e4 100644
--- a/recipe/bld.bat
+++ b/recipe/bld.bat
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ cmake -G "Ninja" ^
       -DGDAL_USE_ARROW=OFF ^
       -DGDAL_USE_ARROWDATASET=OFF ^
       -DGDAL_USE_OPENJPEG=OFF ^
-      -DGDAL_USE_POPPLER=OFF ^
+      -DGDAL_USE_POPPLER=ON ^
       -DGDAL_USE_POSTGRESQL=OFF ^
       -DGDAL_USE_CFITSIO=OFF ^
       -DGDAL_USE_FREEXL=OFF ^
diff --git a/recipe/build.sh b/recipe/build.sh
index a5ce2563..3791ca96 100644
--- a/recipe/build.sh
+++ b/recipe/build.sh
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ cmake -G "Unix Makefiles" \
       -DGDAL_USE_ARROW=OFF \
       -DGDAL_USE_ARROWDATASET=OFF \
       -DGDAL_USE_OPENJPEG=OFF \
-      -DGDAL_USE_POPPLER=OFF \
+      -DGDAL_USE_POPPLER=ON \
       -DGDAL_USE_POSTGRESQL=OFF \
       -DGDAL_USE_CFITSIO=OFF \
       -DGDAL_USE_FREEXL=OFF \
diff --git a/recipe/meta.yaml b/recipe/meta.yaml
index b82617a3..b53ce12e 100644
--- a/recipe/meta.yaml
+++ b/recipe/meta.yaml
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ source:
   sha256: aff3086fee75f5773e33a5598df98d8a4d10be411f777d3ce23584b21d8171ca
 
 build:
-  number: 12
+  number: 13
   skip_compile_pyc:
     - share/bash-completion/completions/*.py
   ignore_run_exports_from:
@@ -54,6 +54,8 @@ requirements:
     - lz4-c
     - openssl
     - pcre2
+    # poppler need to present at build time, so that the shim in core detects that there is read support
+    - poppler
     - proj
     # qhull disabled because of https://github.com/conda-forge/qgis-feedstock/issues/284#issuecomment-1356490896
     # - qhull