diff --git a/package/fetchmail/Config.in b/package/fetchmail/Config.in
index 7c14176b23..62f4f84d50 100644
--- a/package/fetchmail/Config.in
+++ b/package/fetchmail/Config.in
@@ -3,7 +3,6 @@ config BR2_PACKAGE_FETCHMAIL
 	depends on BR2_USE_MMU # fork()
 	select BR2_PACKAGE_CA_CERTIFICATES
 	select BR2_PACKAGE_OPENSSL
-	select BR2_PACKAGE_ZLIB
 	help
 	  Fetchmail - the mail-retrieval daemon
 	  Client daemon to move mail from POP and IMAP to your local computer
diff --git a/package/fetchmail/fetchmail.mk b/package/fetchmail/fetchmail.mk
index 49ce0d3a80..164b2f8ad8 100644
--- a/package/fetchmail/fetchmail.mk
+++ b/package/fetchmail/fetchmail.mk
@@ -13,7 +13,11 @@ FETCHMAIL_LICENSE_FILES = COPYING
 FETCHMAIL_AUTORECONF = YES
 FETCHMAIL_GETTEXTIZE = YES
 
+# needed to help fetchmail detecting the availability of openssl,
+# because it doesn't use pkg-config
+ifeq ($(BR2_STATIC_LIBS),y)
 FETCHMAIL_CONF_ENV += LIBS="-lz"
+endif
 
 FETCHMAIL_CONF_OPTS = \
 	--with-ssl=$(STAGING_DIR)/usr