diff --git a/ckan/ckan/defaults/main.yml b/ckan/ckan/defaults/main.yml
index c2e481a2..9cf77186 100644
--- a/ckan/ckan/defaults/main.yml
+++ b/ckan/ckan/defaults/main.yml
@@ -15,7 +15,8 @@ ckan_package_url: 'http://packaging.ckan.org/{{ ckan_deb_file }}'
 ckan_libdir: /usr/lib/ckan
 ckan_confdir: /etc/ckan/default
 ckan_virtenv: '{{ ckan_libdir }}/default'
-ckan_file_storage_dir: /var/lib/ckan/dev
+ckan_file_harvesting_dir: /var/lib/ckan
+ckan_file_storage_dir: '{{ ckan_file_harvesting_dir }}/dev'
 ckan_config_file: '{{ ckan_confdir }}/production.ini'
 ckan_webapp_port: 8080
 ckan_solr_port: 8983
diff --git a/ckan/ckan/tasks/ckan.yml b/ckan/ckan/tasks/ckan.yml
index 2eaf0eae..c42bd6cd 100644
--- a/ckan/ckan/tasks/ckan.yml
+++ b/ckan/ckan/tasks/ckan.yml
@@ -15,7 +15,11 @@
   tags: [ 'ckan', 'ckan_ini' ]
 
 - name: Create the base directory for the CKAN file storage
-  file: dest={{ ckan_file_storage_dir }} state=directory owner={{ apache_user }} mode=0700
+  file: dest={{ ckan_file_storage_dir }} state=directory owner={{ apache_user }} group={{ ckan_shell_user }} mode=2770
+  tags: ckan
+
+- name: Fix the CKAN harvesting storage permissions
+  file: dest={{ ckan_file_harvesting_dir }} state=directory owner={{ apache_user }} group={{ ckan_shell_user }} mode=2770 recurse=yes
   tags: ckan
 
 - name: authorization file for the psql command, if the database is on a remote server