diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index cafb729..d8ff3e0 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -8,6 +8,12 @@ COPY server_config/supervisord.conf /supervisord.conf
 COPY server_config/nginx /etc/nginx/sites-available/default
 COPY server_config/docker-entrypoint.sh /entrypoint.sh
 
+
+COPY ./requirements.txt ./app/requirements.txt
+# run this before the code, so that the packages
+# are cached
+RUN pip3 install -r ./app/requirements.txt
+
 COPY . /app
 
 RUN pip3 install -r ./app/requirements.txt