diff --git a/src/Biopen/GeoDirectoryBundle/Services/ElementImportService.php b/src/Biopen/GeoDirectoryBundle/Services/ElementImportService.php
index 0e5155766c678b0d8125b214f427802c6b79d080..ca6abbd48cdf692bbc497b22a547ca85416b0a30 100755
--- a/src/Biopen/GeoDirectoryBundle/Services/ElementImportService.php
+++ b/src/Biopen/GeoDirectoryBundle/Services/ElementImportService.php
@@ -61,6 +61,7 @@ class ElementImportService
 
     if (($handle = fopen($fileName, 'r')) !== FALSE) {
       while (($row = fgetcsv($handle, 0, $delimiter)) !== FALSE) {
+        $row = array_map("utf8_encode", $row);
         if(!$header) {
           $header = $row;
         } else {