diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 10c1a0ab6f..f57ce47779 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -430,6 +430,11 @@ if(WITH_OTLP_GRPC OR WITH_OTLP_HTTP)
   if(TARGET protobuf::protoc)
     project_build_tools_get_imported_location(PROTOBUF_PROTOC_EXECUTABLE
                                               protobuf::protoc)
+    # If protobuf::protoc is not a imported target, then we use the target
+    # directly for fallback
+    if(NOT PROTOBUF_PROTOC_EXECUTABLE)
+      set(PROTOBUF_PROTOC_EXECUTABLE protobuf::protoc)
+    endif()
   elseif(Protobuf_PROTOC_EXECUTABLE)
     # Some versions of FindProtobuf.cmake uses mixed case instead of uppercase
     set(PROTOBUF_PROTOC_EXECUTABLE ${Protobuf_PROTOC_EXECUTABLE})