diff --git a/meta/conf/bitbake.conf b/meta/conf/bitbake.conf
index f79e3f7..1c21616 100644
--- a/meta/conf/bitbake.conf
+++ b/meta/conf/bitbake.conf
@@ -673,6 +673,7 @@ require conf/abi_version.conf
 DL_DIR ?= "${TOPDIR}/downloads"
 SSTATE_DIR ?= "${TOPDIR}/sstate-cache"
 IMAGE_FSTYPES ?= "tar.gz"
+INITRAMFS_FSTYPES ?= "cpio.gz"
 PCMCIA_MANAGER ?= "pcmcia-cs"
 DEFAULT_TASK_PROVIDER ?= "task-base"
 MACHINE_TASK_PROVIDER ?= "${DEFAULT_TASK_PROVIDER}"
diff --git a/meta/recipes-core/images/core-image-minimal-initramfs.bb b/meta/recipes-core/images/core-image-minimal-initramfs.bb
index d078c10..5149f31 100644
--- a/meta/recipes-core/images/core-image-minimal-initramfs.bb
+++ b/meta/recipes-core/images/core-image-minimal-initramfs.bb
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ IMAGE_LINGUAS = ""
 
 LICENSE = "MIT"
 
+IMAGE_FSTYPES = "${INITRAMFS_FSTYPES}"
 inherit core-image
 
 IMAGE_ROOTFS_SIZE = "8192"
-IMAGE_FSTYPES =+ "cpio.gz"