diff --git a/src/filters/rclocrtesseract.py b/src/filters/rclocrtesseract.py
index b5925389..c20026b2 100755
--- a/src/filters/rclocrtesseract.py
+++ b/src/filters/rclocrtesseract.py
@@ -80,11 +80,12 @@ def ocrpossible(config, path):
     global tesseractcmd
     if not tesseractcmd:
         config.setKeyDir(os.path.dirname(path))
+        tesseractcmd = config.getConfParam("tesseractcmd")
         if tesseractcmd:
             # It is very tempting to quote this value, esp. on Windows where it
             # will contain whitespace. There is no chance that an actual
             # command line would have quotes, so unquote it.
-            tesseractcmd = config.getConfParam("tesseractcmd").strip('"')
+            tesseractcmd = tesseractcmd.strip('"')
         else:
             tesseractcmd = rclexecm.which("tesseract")
         if not tesseractcmd: