diff --git a/LICENSE b/LICENSE
index 39fd8e300c0159bea6c242c25bddfbfd134d563f..700311ab291623086237fd8bd4c73e9f6d48222f 100644
--- a/LICENSE
+++ b/LICENSE
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 MIT License
 
-Copyright (c) 2019-2020 Frost Ming
+Copyright (c) 2019-2021 Frost Ming
 
 Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
 of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
diff --git a/news/289.feature.md b/news/289.feature.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..7e623520de10cc4a3fc2f5b9763e92ca7431b169
--- /dev/null
+++ b/news/289.feature.md
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Support `-f setuppy` for `pdm export` to export the metadata as setup.py
diff --git a/pdm/formats/__init__.py b/pdm/formats/__init__.py
index 7ee26958fb1b25596ab6e7296536d7860070ae0e..b07856c14f69af8c9740b8e626b7cf0506d0690a 100644
--- a/pdm/formats/__init__.py
+++ b/pdm/formats/__init__.py
@@ -1,9 +1,38 @@
-from pdm.formats import flit, legacy, pipfile, poetry, requirements
+from __future__ import annotations
 
-FORMATS = {
+import os
+from typing import TYPE_CHECKING, Dict, Iterable, Protocol, Tuple
+
+from pdm.formats import flit, legacy, pipfile, poetry, requirements, setup_py
+
+if TYPE_CHECKING:
+    import argparse
+
+    from pdm.models.candidates import Candidate
+    from pdm.project import Project
+
+
+class FormatConverter(Protocol):
+    def check_fingerprint(self, project: Project, filename: os.PathLike) -> bool:
+        ...
+
+    def convert(self, project: Project, filename: os.PathLike) -> Tuple[dict, dict]:
+        ...
+
+    def export(
+        self,
+        project: Project,
+        candidates: Iterable[Candidate],
+        options: argparse.Namespace,
+    ) -> str:
+        ...
+
+
+FORMATS: Dict[str, FormatConverter] = {
     "pipfile": pipfile,
     "poetry": poetry,
     "flit": flit,
     "requirements": requirements,
     "legacy": legacy,
+    "setuppy": setup_py,
 }
diff --git a/pdm/formats/setup_py.py b/pdm/formats/setup_py.py
index e69de29bb2d1d6434b8b29ae775ad8c2e48c5391..54b4e5d63d524e945e685a27882179575c39837c 100644
--- a/pdm/formats/setup_py.py
+++ b/pdm/formats/setup_py.py
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+import os
+
+
+def check_fingerprint(project, filename):
+    return os.path.basename(filename) == "setup.py"
+
+
+def convert(project, filename):
+    raise NotImplementedError()
+
+
+def export(project, candidates, options):
+    from pdm.pep517.base import Builder
+
+    builder = Builder(project.root)
+    return builder.format_setup_py()
diff --git a/tests/fixtures/projects/demo-package/setup.py b/tests/fixtures/projects/demo-package/setup.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..add2c91ea845567c956c9aa9c0fdedc59d1648c4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/fixtures/projects/demo-package/setup.py
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+from setuptools import setup
+
+import codecs
+
+with codecs.open("README.md", encoding="utf-8") as fp:
+    long_description = fp.read()
+INSTALL_REQUIRES = [
+    "flask",
+]
+
+setup_kwargs = {
+    "name": "demo-package",
+    "version": "0.1.0",
+    "description": "",
+    "long_description": long_description,
+    "license": "MIT",
+    "author": "",
+    "author_email": "frostming <mianghong@gmail.com>",
+    "maintainer": None,
+    "maintainer_email": None,
+    "url": "",
+    "packages": [
+        "my_package",
+    ],
+    "package_data": {"": ["*"]},
+    "long_description_content_type": "text/markdown",
+    "install_requires": INSTALL_REQUIRES,
+    "python_requires": ">=3.5",
+}
+
+
+setup(**setup_kwargs)
diff --git a/tests/test_formats.py b/tests/test_formats.py
index 6a36775ab59a34db4a23f7b258ce9e291ea04a18..81e28fae98b204f976e384732970d74cd6be5f7b 100644
--- a/tests/test_formats.py
+++ b/tests/test_formats.py
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
-from pdm.formats import flit, legacy, pipfile, poetry, requirements
+from pdm.formats import flit, legacy, pipfile, poetry, requirements, setup_py
+from pdm.project import Project
 from pdm.utils import cd
 from tests import FIXTURES
 
@@ -126,3 +127,9 @@ def test_convert_legacy_format(project):
     assert not result["dev-dependencies"]
     assert result["optional-dependencies"]["test"] == ["pytest"]
     assert settings["source"][0]["url"] == "https://test.pypi.org/simple"
+
+
+def test_export_setup_py():
+    project = Project(FIXTURES / "projects/demo-package")
+    content = setup_py.export(project, [], None)
+    assert content == project.root.joinpath("setup.py").read_text()