diff --git a/ingest/workflow/snakemake_rules/nextclade.smk b/ingest/workflow/snakemake_rules/nextclade.smk
index a7a73e46..2e632e29 100644
--- a/ingest/workflow/snakemake_rules/nextclade.smk
+++ b/ingest/workflow/snakemake_rules/nextclade.smk
@@ -8,6 +8,8 @@ rule nextclade_all:
     output:
         "data/nextclade_results/nextclade_all.tsv",
     threads: 4
+    params:
+        min_length=1400,  # approximately E gene length
     shell:
         """
         nextclade run \
@@ -15,6 +17,7 @@ rule nextclade_all:
           -j {threads} \
           --output-tsv {output} \
           --min-match-rate 0.01 \
+          --min-length {params.min_length} \
           --silent \
           {input.sequences}
         """