diff --git a/git-remote-hg b/git-remote-hg
index 2cd1996..dcf6c98 100755
--- a/git-remote-hg
+++ b/git-remote-hg
@@ -782,6 +782,8 @@ def do_export(parser):
             continue
 
         if peer:
+            rb = peer.listkeys('bookmarks')
+            old = rb.get(bmark, '')
             if not peer.pushkey('bookmarks', bmark, old, new):
                 print "error %s" % ref
                 continue