diff --git a/pkg/distro/fedora/package_sets.go b/pkg/distro/fedora/package_sets.go
index 30ebe4c9cf..7f4ab9f5d7 100644
--- a/pkg/distro/fedora/package_sets.go
+++ b/pkg/distro/fedora/package_sets.go
@@ -251,8 +251,6 @@ func bootableContainerPackageSet(t *imageType) rpmmd.PackageSet {
 			"initscripts",                         // make sure initscripts doesn't get pulled back in https://github.com/coreos/fedora-coreos-tracker/issues/220#issuecomment-611566254
 			"NetworkManager-initscripts-ifcfg-rh", // do not use legacy ifcfg config format in NetworkManager See https://github.com/coreos/fedora-coreos-config/pull/1991
 			"nodejs",
-			"perl",
-			"perl-interpreter",
 			"plymouth",         // for (datacenter/cloud oriented) servers, we want to see the details by default.  https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/devel@lists.fedoraproject.org/thread/HSMISZ3ETWQ4ETVLWZQJ55ARZT27AAV3/
 			"systemd-networkd", // we use NetworkManager
 		},
@@ -265,6 +263,10 @@ func bootableContainerPackageSet(t *imageType) rpmmd.PackageSet {
 				"irqbalance",
 				"ostree-grub2",
 			},
+			Exclude: []string{
+				"perl",
+				"perl-interpreter",
+			},
 		})
 	case arch.ARCH_PPC64LE.String():
 		ps.Append(rpmmd.PackageSet{
@@ -280,6 +282,10 @@ func bootableContainerPackageSet(t *imageType) rpmmd.PackageSet {
 			Include: []string{
 				"irqbalance",
 			},
+			Exclude: []string{
+				"perl",
+				"perl-interpreter",
+			},
 		})
 	}