diff --git a/deps/rabbitmq_federation/package.mk b/deps/rabbitmq_federation/package.mk
index 94dc6718b2..a4c040f7dd 100644
--- a/deps/rabbitmq_federation/package.mk
+++ b/deps/rabbitmq_federation/package.mk
@@ -6,7 +6,10 @@ WITH_BROKER_TEST_COMMANDS:=rabbit_test_runner:run_in_broker(\"$(PACKAGE_DIR)/tes
 WITH_BROKER_SETUP_SCRIPTS:=$(PACKAGE_DIR)/etc/setup-rabbit-test.sh
 STANDALONE_TEST_COMMANDS:=rabbit_test_runner:run_multi(\"$(UMBRELLA_BASE_DIR)/rabbitmq-server\",\"$(PACKAGE_DIR)/test/ebin\",\"$(FILTER)\",$(COVER),\"/tmp/rabbitmq-multi-node/plugins\")
 
+# NB: we cannot use PACKAGE_DIR in the body of this rule as it gets
+# expanded at the wrong time and set to the value of a completely
+# arbitrary package!
 $(PACKAGE_DIR)+pre-test:: $(PACKAGE_DIR)+dist
 	rm -rf /tmp/rabbitmq-multi-node/plugins
 	mkdir -p /tmp/rabbitmq-multi-node/plugins/plugins
-	cp -p dist/*.ez /tmp/rabbitmq-multi-node/plugins/plugins
+	cp -p $(UMBRELLA_BASE_DIR)/rabbitmq-federation/dist/*.ez /tmp/rabbitmq-multi-node/plugins/plugins