diff --git a/misc/migration_tools/bulkmarcimport.pl b/misc/migration_tools/bulkmarcimport.pl
index bc438aac38..a441c071fa 100755
--- a/misc/migration_tools/bulkmarcimport.pl
+++ b/misc/migration_tools/bulkmarcimport.pl
@@ -199,6 +199,17 @@ if ($test_parameter) {
 
 my $marcFlavour = C4::Context->preference('marcflavour') || 'MARC21';
 
+# The definition of $searcher must be before MARC::Batch->new
+my $searcher = Koha::SearchEngine::Search->new(
+    {
+        index => (
+              $authorities
+            ? $Koha::SearchEngine::AUTHORITIES_INDEX
+            : $Koha::SearchEngine::BIBLIOS_INDEX
+        )
+    }
+);
+
 print "Characteristic MARC flavour: $marcFlavour\n" if $verbose;
 my $starttime = gettimeofday;
 my $batch;
@@ -254,16 +265,6 @@ if ($logfile){
    print $loghandle "id;operation;status\n";
 }
 
-my $searcher = Koha::SearchEngine::Search->new(
-    {
-        index => (
-              $authorities
-            ? $Koha::SearchEngine::AUTHORITIES_INDEX
-            : $Koha::SearchEngine::BIBLIOS_INDEX
-        )
-    }
-);
-
 RECORD: while (  ) {
     my $record;
     # get records