diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index c6659542..4c639255 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -7,6 +7,9 @@
         if line.startswith("__version__"):
             version = line.split("=")[1].split('"')[1]
 
+with open("README.md", encoding="utf-8") as f:
+    long_description = f.read()
+
 setup(
     name="earthdaily",
     packages=find_packages(exclude=['tests']),
@@ -14,7 +17,7 @@
     description="earthdaily: easy authentication, search and retrieval of Earth Data Store collections data",
     author="EarthDaily Agro",
     python_requires=">=3.10",
-    long_description=open("README.md").read(),
+    long_description=long_description,
     long_description_content_type="text/markdown",
     install_requires=[
         "numpy",