diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 8222e07..4ad9c2a 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 
 ### Changed
 * In `mkl_fft.fftn` and `mkl_fft.ifftn`, improved checking of the shape argument `s` to use faster direct transforms more often. This makes performance more consistent between `mkl_fft.fftn/ifftn` and `mkl.interfaces`. [gh-283](https://github.com/IntelPython/mkl_fft/pull/283)
+* Made conda recipe dependency on numpy configurable through `USE_NUMPY_BASE` environment variable [gh-299](https://github.com/IntelPython/mkl_fft/pull/299)
 
 ### Removed
 * Dropped support for Python 3.9 [gh-243](https://github.com/IntelPython/mkl_fft/pull/243)
diff --git a/conda-recipe/meta.yaml b/conda-recipe/meta.yaml
index 1b4c4c2..949fdec 100644
--- a/conda-recipe/meta.yaml
+++ b/conda-recipe/meta.yaml
@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
+# Intel numpy-base is still needed for internal wheels CI, so we control its use with this optional toggle
+{% set use_numpy_base = environ.get('USE_NUMPY_BASE', 'true').lower() == 'true' %}
+
 package:
     name: mkl_fft
     version: {{ GIT_DESCRIBE_TAG }}
@@ -11,6 +14,11 @@ build:
       - WHEELS_OUTPUT_FOLDER
     ignore_run_exports:
       - blas
+      {% if use_numpy_base %}
+      - numpy-base
+      {% else %}
+      - numpy
+      {% endif %}
 
 requirements:
     build:
@@ -23,13 +31,21 @@ requirements:
       - setuptools >=77
       - mkl-devel
       - cython
+      {% if use_numpy_base %}
       - numpy-base
+      {% else %}
+      - numpy
+      {% endif %}
       - wheel  >=0.41.3
     run:
       - python
       - python-gil     # [py>=314]
       - mkl-service
-      - {{ pin_compatible('numpy-base') }}
+      {% if use_numpy_base %}
+      - numpy-base
+      {% else %}
+      - numpy >=1.26.4
+      {% endif %}
 
 test:
     commands:
diff --git a/mkl_fft/_version.py b/mkl_fft/_version.py
index fbb3ce8..5cada40 100644
--- a/mkl_fft/_version.py
+++ b/mkl_fft/_version.py
@@ -1 +1 @@
-__version__ = "2.2.0dev5"
+__version__ = "2.2.0dev6"