diff --git a/src/main/java/com/instaclick/pentaho/plugin/amqp/processor/ProducerProcessor.java b/src/main/java/com/instaclick/pentaho/plugin/amqp/processor/ProducerProcessor.java
index 30d57b9..9d73915 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/instaclick/pentaho/plugin/amqp/processor/ProducerProcessor.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/instaclick/pentaho/plugin/amqp/processor/ProducerProcessor.java
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ public boolean process(Object[] r) throws KettleStepException, IOException
             : "";
 
         // publish the current message
-        channel.basicPublish(data.target, data.routing, null, data.body.getBytes());
+        channel.basicPublish(data.target, data.routing, null, data.body.getBytes("UTF-8"));
 
         // put the row to the output row stream
         plugin.putRow(data.outputRowMeta, r);