diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 8b31cfb3a8893155e942ec66a8531b1cee2471ee..36b474ad7188ef06096c46c43aacf1d0135fe2d3 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -156,7 +156,7 @@ def setup_package():
         author_email='h.tomwoerden@indiscale.com',
         install_requires=["caosdb>=0.4.0",
                           "openpyxl>=3.0.0",
-                          "xlrd>=1.2.0",
+                          "xlrd>=2.0",
                           ],
         packages=find_packages('src'),
         package_dir={'': 'src'},