diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 98e7ffc..71505ba 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -98,7 +98,6 @@ ENV TZ=${TZ} \
     python3-greenlet \
     python3-pip \
     python3-tz \
-    python3-unicodecsv \
     python3-yaml \
     ${ADD_DEB_PACKAGES}"
 
diff --git a/pygeoapi/formatter/csv_.py b/pygeoapi/formatter/csv_.py
index 664bc88..51a6ded 100644
--- a/pygeoapi/formatter/csv_.py
+++ b/pygeoapi/formatter/csv_.py
@@ -27,11 +27,10 @@
 #
 # =================================================================
 
+import csv
 import io
 import logging
 
-import unicodecsv as csv
-
 from pygeoapi.formatter.base import BaseFormatter, FormatterSerializationError
 
 LOGGER = logging.getLogger(__name__)
@@ -83,10 +82,11 @@ class CSVFormatter(BaseFormatter):
                 # TODO: implement wkt geometry serialization
                 LOGGER.debug('not a point geometry, skipping')
 
+        print("JJJ", fields)
         LOGGER.debug(f'CSV fields: {fields}')
 
         try:
-            output = io.BytesIO()
+            output = io.StringIO()
             writer = csv.DictWriter(output, fields)
             writer.writeheader()
 
@@ -101,7 +101,7 @@ class CSVFormatter(BaseFormatter):
             LOGGER.error(err)
             raise FormatterSerializationError('Error writing CSV output')
 
-        return output.getvalue()
+        return output.getvalue().encode('utf-8')
 
     def __repr__(self):
         return f'<CSVFormatter> {self.name}'
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index ef0f47d..601f51b 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -16,4 +16,3 @@ requests
 shapely
 SQLAlchemy<2.0.0
 tinydb
-unicodecsv
diff --git a/tests/api/test_itemtypes.py b/tests/api/test_itemtypes.py
index 283bb0c..2cd4458 100644
--- a/tests/api/test_itemtypes.py
+++ b/tests/api/test_itemtypes.py
@@ -578,6 +578,13 @@ def test_get_collection_item(config, api_):
     assert 'prev' not in feature['links']
     assert 'next' not in feature['links']
 
+    req = mock_api_request()
+    rsp_headers, code, response = get_collection_item(api_, req, 'norway_pop',
+                                                      '790')
+    feature = json.loads(response)
+
+    assert feature['properties']['name'] == 'Ålesund'
+
 
 def test_get_collection_item_json_ld(config, api_):
     req = mock_api_request({'f': 'jsonld'})