diff --git a/avocado/utils/astring.py b/avocado/utils/astring.py
index 2c764e85a4b5680dcee8ad0a55a44c7080837b7f..20a3fe7a2b2deb44704615b68f798fba506eaec2 100644
--- a/avocado/utils/astring.py
+++ b/avocado/utils/astring.py
@@ -154,10 +154,13 @@ def iter_tabular_output(matrix, header=None):
     if header:
         for column in header:
             lengths.append(len(column))
+    str_matrix = []
     for row in matrix:
+        str_matrix.append([])
         for i, column in enumerate(row):
-            column = unicode(column).encode("utf-8")
-            col_len = len(column)
+            column = string_safe_encode(column)
+            str_matrix[-1].append(column)
+            col_len = len(column.decode("utf-8"))
             try:
                 max_len = lengths[i]
                 if col_len > max_len:
@@ -174,7 +177,7 @@ def iter_tabular_output(matrix, header=None):
     if header:
         out_line = format_string % header
         yield out_line
-    for row in matrix:
+    for row in str_matrix:
         out_line = format_string % tuple(row)
         yield out_line
 
@@ -195,6 +198,19 @@ def tabular_output(matrix, header=None):
     return "\n".join(iter_tabular_output(matrix, header))
 
 
+def string_safe_encode(string):
+    """
+    People tend to mix unicode strems with encoded strings. This function
+    tries to replace any input with a valid utf-8 encoded ascii stream.
+    """
+    if not isinstance(string, basestring):
+        string = str(string)
+    try:
+        return string.encode("utf-8")
+    except UnicodeDecodeError:
+        return string.decode("utf-8").encode("utf-8")
+
+
 def string_to_safe_path(string):
     """
     Convert string to a valid file/dir name.
diff --git a/selftests/unit/test_astring.py b/selftests/unit/test_astring.py
index ff03137f7b1c8360f74b9e8e1d65bdba6b23fa08..0c0c189a4b72eb8fdfe657331985dbb41efd81a5 100644
--- a/selftests/unit/test_astring.py
+++ b/selftests/unit/test_astring.py
@@ -17,5 +17,27 @@ class AstringTest(unittest.TestCase):
                           'foo               bar\n'
                           '/bin/bar/sbrubles /home/myuser/sbrubles'))
 
+    def testUnicodeTabular(self):
+        """
+        Verifies tabular can handle utf-8 chars properly
+
+        It tries valid encoded utf-8 string as well as unicode ones of
+        various lengths and verifies calculates the right length and reports
+        the correct results. (the string_safe_encode function is in use here)
+        """
+
+        matrix = [("\xd0\xb0\xd0\xb2\xd0\xbe\xd0\xba\xd0\xb0\xd0\xb4\xd0\xbe",
+                   123),
+                  (u'\u0430\u0432\u043e\u043a\u0430\u0434\u043e', 123),
+                  ("avok\xc3\xa1do", 123),
+                  ("avocado", 123)]
+        str_matrix = ("\xd0\xb0\xd0\xb2\xd0\xbe\xd0\xba\xd0\xb0\xd0\xb4"
+                      "\xd0\xbe 123\n"
+                      "\xd0\xb0\xd0\xb2\xd0\xbe\xd0\xba\xd0\xb0\xd0\xb4"
+                      "\xd0\xbe 123\n"
+                      "avok\xc3\xa1do 123\n"
+                      "avocado 123")
+        self.assertEqual(astring.tabular_output(matrix), str_matrix)
+
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     unittest.main()