diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 73d4961..a305dbd 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -129,6 +129,24 @@ The following environment variables are supported:
 
     If set, then instead of working through the numeric stages in order, this list will be followed. For example setting to `"stage0 stage1 mystage stage2"` will run the contents of `mystage` before stage2. Note that quotes are needed around the list. An absolute or relative path can be given for stages outside the pi-gen directory.
 
+ * `stageX_EXPORT_LIST` (Default: based on presence for `EXPORT_IMAGE` and/or
+  `EXPORT_NOOBS` in stageX directory (currently stage2, stage4, and stage5) )
+
+    If set, then instead of determining images to export based on `EXPORT_IMAGE`
+    and/or `EXPORT_NOOBS` being present in a particular directory the images to
+    export for a particular stage is based on that stage's `stageX_EXPORT_LIST`.
+    Only stages with a `stageX_EXPORT_LIST` (e.g. `stage2_EXPORT_LIST`) are
+    determined this way.  All other stages use the default method (presence of
+    `EXPORT_IMAGE` and/or `EXPORT_NOOBS`).
+    For stages with a `stageX_EXPORT_LIST`, the contents of EXPORT_LIST are
+    expected to be directory names in the repo directory.  In addition, files
+    with each directory in EXPORT_LIST translated to upper case and dashes (-)
+    converted to underscores (\_) in the stage's directory are sourced before
+    generating the image.  (e.g. an 'export-image' in the stage2_EXPORT_LIST
+    first sources stage2/EXPORT_IMAGE and then generates an images using the
+    `export-image` directory, which is the same behaviour as the old default
+    behaviour.
+
 A simple example for building Raspbian:
 
 ```bash
diff --git a/build.sh b/build.sh
index 9e78728..1b264d6 100755
--- a/build.sh
+++ b/build.sh
@@ -87,8 +87,13 @@ run_stage(){
 	STAGE_WORK_DIR="${WORK_DIR}/${STAGE}"
 	ROOTFS_DIR="${STAGE_WORK_DIR}"/rootfs
 	if [ ! -f SKIP_IMAGES ]; then
-		if [ -f "${STAGE_DIR}/EXPORT_IMAGE" ]; then
-			EXPORT_DIRS="${EXPORT_DIRS} ${STAGE_DIR}"
+		if [ -z "${EXPORT_LIST}" ]; then
+			get_stage_export "${STAGE_DIR}"
+			if [ -n "${EXPORT_LIST}" ]; then
+				EXPORT_DIRS="${EXPORT_DIRS} ${STAGE_DIR}"
+			fi
+			unset EXPORT_LIST
+			export EXPORT_LIST
 		fi
 	fi
 	if [ ! -f SKIP ]; then
@@ -180,6 +185,15 @@ export TIMEZONE_DEFAULT="${TIMEZONE_DEFAULT:-Europe/London}"
 
 export GIT_HASH=${GIT_HASH:-"$(git rev-parse HEAD)"}
 
+if [ "${USE_QEMU}" = "1" ]; then
+	# shellcheck disable=SC2034
+	export stage2_EXPORT_LIST="${stage2_EXPORT_LIST:-export-image}"
+	# shellcheck disable=SC2034
+	export stage4_EXPORT_LIST="${stage4_EXPORT_LIST:-export-image}"
+	# shellcheck disable=SC2034
+	export stage5_EXPORT_LIST="${stage5_EXPORT_LIST:-export-image}"
+fi
+
 export CLEAN
 export IMG_NAME
 export APT_PROXY
@@ -236,20 +250,26 @@ for STAGE_DIR in $STAGE_LIST; do
 done
 
 CLEAN=1
+
 for EXPORT_DIR in ${EXPORT_DIRS}; do
-	STAGE_DIR=${BASE_DIR}/export-image
-	# shellcheck source=/dev/null
-	source "${EXPORT_DIR}/EXPORT_IMAGE"
-	EXPORT_ROOTFS_DIR=${WORK_DIR}/$(basename "${EXPORT_DIR}")/rootfs
-	run_stage
-	if [ "${USE_QEMU}" != "1" ]; then
-		if [ -e "${EXPORT_DIR}/EXPORT_NOOBS" ]; then
+	log "Begin export ${EXPORT_DIR}"
+	# e.g. stageX with default stage_dirs
+	get_stage_export "${EXPORT_DIR}"
+
+	for EXPORT_IMAGE in ${EXPORT_LIST}; do
+		IMAGE_SOURCE="$(echo "${EXPORT_IMAGE}" | tr '[:lower:]' '[:upper:]' | tr '\-' '_')"
+		if [ -f "${EXPORT_DIR}/${IMAGE_SOURCE}" ]; then
+			log "Begin ${EXPORT_IMAGE}"
+			STAGE_DIR="${BASE_DIR}/${EXPORT_IMAGE}"
 			# shellcheck source=/dev/null
-			source "${EXPORT_DIR}/EXPORT_NOOBS"
-			STAGE_DIR="${BASE_DIR}/export-noobs"
+			source "${EXPORT_DIR}/${IMAGE_SOURCE}"
+			# shellcheck disable=SC2153
+			EXPORT_ROOTFS_DIR="${WORK_DIR}/${EXPORT_STAGE}/rootfs"
 			run_stage
+			log "End ${EXPORT_IMAGE}"
 		fi
-	fi
+	done
+	log "End export ${EXPORT_DIR}"
 done
 
 if [ -x ${BASE_DIR}/postrun.sh ]; then
diff --git a/scripts/common b/scripts/common
index e2048d9..9c3e4d5 100644
--- a/scripts/common
+++ b/scripts/common
@@ -98,3 +98,29 @@ update_issue() {
 	echo -e "Raspberry Pi reference ${IMG_DATE}\nGenerated using ${PI_GEN}, ${PI_GEN_REPO}, ${GIT_HASH}, ${1}" > "${ROOTFS_DIR}/etc/rpi-issue"
 }
 export -f update_issue
+
+get_stage_export() {
+	local stage_dir="$1"
+	local stage_var
+	stage_var="$(echo "$(basename "$1")"|tr '\- :/' '_')"
+	local export_list_var
+
+	export_list_var="\$${stage_var}"_EXPORT_LIST
+
+	eval EXPORT_LIST="$export_list_var"
+
+	if [ -z "${EXPORT_LIST}" ]; then
+		if [ -e "$stage_dir"/EXPORT_IMAGE ]; then
+			EXPORT_LIST="export-image"
+		fi
+		if [ -e "$stage_dir"/EXPORT_NOOBS ]; then
+			EXPORT_LIST="${EXPORT_LIST} export-noobs"
+		fi
+	fi
+
+  EXPORT_STAGE="$(basename "$1")"
+	export EXPORT_STAGE
+	export EXPORT_LIST
+}
+
+export -f get_stage_export