diff --git a/swh/loader/package/tests/test_utils.py b/swh/loader/package/tests/test_utils.py
--- a/swh/loader/package/tests/test_utils.py
+++ b/swh/loader/package/tests/test_utils.py
@@ -6,6 +6,8 @@
 
 import json
 import os
+from unittest.mock import MagicMock
+from urllib.error import URLError
 
 import pytest
 
@@ -130,6 +132,45 @@
             download(url, dest=str(tmp_path), hashes=expected_hashes)
 
 
+@pytest.mark.fs
+def test_ftp_download_ok(tmp_path, mocker):
+    """Download without issue should provide filename and hashes"""
+    filename = "requests-0.0.1.tar.gz"
+    url = "ftp://pypi.org/pypi/requests/%s" % filename
+    data = b"this is something"
+
+    cm = MagicMock()
+    cm.getstatus.return_value = 200
+    cm.read.return_value = data
+    cm.__enter__.return_value = cm
+    mocker.patch("swh.loader.package.utils.urlopen").return_value = cm
+
+    actual_filepath, actual_hashes = download(url, dest=str(tmp_path))
+
+    actual_filename = os.path.basename(actual_filepath)
+    assert actual_filename == filename
+    assert actual_hashes["length"] == len(data)
+    assert (
+        actual_hashes["checksums"]["sha1"] == "fdd1ce606a904b08c816ba84f3125f2af44d92b2"
+    )  # noqa
+    assert (
+        actual_hashes["checksums"]["sha256"]
+        == "1d9224378d77925d612c9f926eb9fb92850e6551def8328011b6a972323298d5"
+    )
+
+
+@pytest.mark.fs
+def test_ftp_download_ko(tmp_path, mocker):
+    """Download without issue should provide filename and hashes"""
+    filename = "requests-0.0.1.tar.gz"
+    url = "ftp://pypi.org/pypi/requests/%s" % filename
+
+    mocker.patch("swh.loader.package.utils.urlopen").side_effect = URLError("FTP error")
+
+    with pytest.raises(URLError):
+        download(url, dest=str(tmp_path))
+
+
 def test_api_info_failure(requests_mock):
     """Failure to fetch info/release information should raise"""
     url = "https://pypi.org/pypi/requests/json"
diff --git a/swh/loader/package/utils.py b/swh/loader/package/utils.py
--- a/swh/loader/package/utils.py
+++ b/swh/loader/package/utils.py
@@ -3,11 +3,13 @@
 # License: GNU General Public License version 3, or any later version
 # See top-level LICENSE file for more information
 
+from contextlib import closing
 import copy
 import functools
 import logging
 import os
 from typing import Callable, Dict, Optional, Tuple, TypeVar
+from urllib.request import urlopen
 
 import requests
 
@@ -79,9 +81,17 @@
         params["headers"].update(extra_request_headers)
     # so the connection does not hang indefinitely (read/connection timeout)
     timeout = params.get("timeout", 60)
-    response = requests.get(url, **params, timeout=timeout, stream=True)
-    if response.status_code != 200:
-        raise ValueError("Fail to query '%s'. Reason: %s" % (url, response.status_code))
+
+    if url.startswith("ftp://"):
+        with closing(urlopen(url, timeout=timeout)) as response:
+            response_data = [response.read()]
+    else:
+        response = requests.get(url, **params, timeout=timeout, stream=True)
+        if response.status_code != 200:
+            raise ValueError(
+                "Fail to query '%s'. Reason: %s" % (url, response.status_code)
+            )
+        response_data = response.iter_content(chunk_size=HASH_BLOCK_SIZE)
 
     filename = filename if filename else os.path.basename(url)
     logger.debug("filename: %s", filename)
@@ -90,7 +100,7 @@
 
     h = MultiHash(hash_names=DOWNLOAD_HASHES)
     with open(filepath, "wb") as f:
-        for chunk in response.iter_content(chunk_size=HASH_BLOCK_SIZE):
+        for chunk in response_data:
             h.update(chunk)
             f.write(chunk)