diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/esmf/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/esmf/package.py
index a874213901..77bfe8fac7 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/esmf/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/esmf/package.py
@@ -343,6 +343,11 @@ def setup_build_environment(self, env):
             # NetCDF format.
             env.set("ESMF_NETCDF", "nc-config")
             env.set("ESMF_NFCONFIG", "nf-config")
+            netcdfc = spec["netcdf-c"]
+            if netcdfc.satisfies("~shared"):
+                nc_config = which(os.path.join(netcdfc.prefix.bin, "nc-config"))
+                nc_flags = nc_config("--libs", output=str).strip()
+                env.set("ESMF_NETCDF_LIBS", nc_flags)
 
         ###################
         # Parallel-NetCDF #