diff --git a/.circleci/config.yml b/.circleci/config.yml
index 7ec198b50..878c532fe 100644
--- a/.circleci/config.yml
+++ b/.circleci/config.yml
@@ -195,6 +195,7 @@ jobs:
             # run make check-citus-upgrade for all citus versions
             # the image has ${CITUS_VERSIONS} set with all verions it contains the binaries of
             for citus_version in ${CITUS_VERSIONS}; do \
+              export upgrade_test_old_citus_version="$citus_version"; \
               gosu circleci \
                 make -C src/test/regress \
                   check-citus-upgrade \