diff --git a/.github/workflows/main.yaml b/.github/workflows/main.yaml
index b4c43f38..a82d08e7 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/main.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/main.yaml
@@ -101,6 +101,8 @@ jobs:
 
       - name: Run Tests
         shell: bash -l {0}
+        env:
+          PANDAS_FUTURE_INFER_STRING: 1
         run: |
           pytest -v  fastparquet/ # fastparquet test suite against dev pandas
           pytest --verbose pandas/pandas/tests/io/test_parquet.py