diff --git a/C4/Context.pm b/C4/Context.pm
index 27c0e3ef8d..41c4629b22 100644
--- a/C4/Context.pm
+++ b/C4/Context.pm
@@ -406,7 +406,7 @@ sub preference {
     my $self = shift;
     my $var  = shift;    # The system preference to return
 
-    return $ENV{"OVERRIDE_SYSPREF_$var"}
+    return Encode::decode_utf8($ENV{"OVERRIDE_SYSPREF_$var"})
         if defined $ENV{"OVERRIDE_SYSPREF_$var"};
 
     $var = lc $var;