diff --git a/training/add_a_link/src/add_a_link/release/export_hdfs_table_to_pkl.py b/training/add_a_link/src/add_a_link/release/export_hdfs_table_to_pkl.py
index 54dd01ef536b6e2e526ee119473f3d7d8bab9384..8d696e8212daa64806998096d3752885b5efeb62 100644
--- a/training/add_a_link/src/add_a_link/release/export_hdfs_table_to_pkl.py
+++ b/training/add_a_link/src/add_a_link/release/export_hdfs_table_to_pkl.py
@@ -2,9 +2,9 @@ import os
 import pickle
 
 import click
-import tqdm
 from add_a_link.release.release_utils import copy_from_local_to_hdfs
 from pyspark.sql import SparkSession
+from tqdm import tqdm
 
 
 def run(spark: SparkSession, directory: str):
diff --git a/training/add_a_link/src/add_a_link/release/export_tables.py b/training/add_a_link/src/add_a_link/release/export_tables.py
index 4b45f51c542ec953e5a9efdcfd035f0a3b6bda6a..fee3e99573962a648c27fc9041ba1756602e7ed1 100644
--- a/training/add_a_link/src/add_a_link/release/export_tables.py
+++ b/training/add_a_link/src/add_a_link/release/export_tables.py
@@ -1,14 +1,17 @@
 import gzip
+import os
 import subprocess
 
 import click
-from add_a_link.release.mysql_utils import get_connection_dict, read_password
+from add_a_link.release.mysql_utils import get_mysql_connection, read_password
 from add_a_link.release.release_utils import copy_from_local_to_hdfs
 
 
 def run(directory: str, wiki_id: str, maria_db_password_file_hdfs_path: str):
+    os.makedirs(directory, exist_ok=True)
     read_password(maria_db_password_file_hdfs_path)
-    connection_dict = get_connection_dict()
+    mysql_conn = get_mysql_connection()
+    cursor = mysql_conn.cursor()
     list_fname = ["anchors", "pageids", "redirects", "w2vfiltered"]
     table_prefix = "lr"
     for table in list_fname:
@@ -16,33 +19,20 @@ def run(directory: str, wiki_id: str, maria_db_password_file_hdfs_path: str):
         print(f"Exporting table : {table_name}")
         filename = f"{directory}/{table_name}.sql.gz"
 
-        mysqldump_command = [
-            "mysqldump",
-        ]
-        mysqldump_command += [
-            "--skip-opt",
-            "--no-create-info",
-            "--skip-extended-insert",
-            "--skip-create-options",
-            f"-u{connection_dict['user']}",
-        ]
+        cursor.execute(f"SELECT * FROM {table_name}")
+        columns = [desc[0] for desc in cursor.description]
+        rows = cursor.fetchall()
+        lines = []
+        for row in rows:
+            values = [
+                mysql_conn.escape(val) if val is not None else "NULL" for val in row
+            ]
+            stmt = f"INSERT INTO `{table_name}` ({', '.join(columns)}) VALUES ({', '.join(values)});\n"
+            # keep the raw bytes
+            lines.append(stmt.encode("utf-8", errors="surrogateescape"))
 
-        mysqldump_command += [f"-p{connection_dict['password']}"]
-
-        mysqldump_command += [
-            "--lock-tables=false",
-            "-h",
-            connection_dict["host"],
-            "--port",
-            str(connection_dict["port"]),
-            connection_dict["database"],
-            table_name,
-        ]
         with gzip.open(filename, "wb") as gzip_file:
-            mysqldump = subprocess.Popen(
-                mysqldump_command, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, bufsize=-1
-            )
-            gzip_file.writelines(mysqldump.stdout)
+            gzip_file.writelines(lines)
             gzip_file.close()
         copy_from_local_to_hdfs(filename, filename)
         checksum_filename = f"{filename}.checksum"
diff --git a/training/add_a_link/src/add_a_link/release/mysql_utils.py b/training/add_a_link/src/add_a_link/release/mysql_utils.py
index 99f86814bbd310dd2f8ef660f18ff9d51cac82ab..871252b546c0dfb9fba92532d4f6d6e2b039856f 100644
--- a/training/add_a_link/src/add_a_link/release/mysql_utils.py
+++ b/training/add_a_link/src/add_a_link/release/mysql_utils.py
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ import os
 
 import fsspec
 import pymysql
+from add_a_link.utils import configure_fsspec
 from dotenv import load_dotenv
 
 pymysql.install_as_MySQLdb()
@@ -10,6 +11,7 @@ import MySQLdb  # noqa: E402
 load_dotenv()
 
 
+configure_fsspec()
 fs_hdfs = fsspec.filesystem("hdfs")
 
 
diff --git a/training/add_a_link/src/add_a_link/release/release_utils.py b/training/add_a_link/src/add_a_link/release/release_utils.py
index 67ee4cb94376b7449f3166a15523103a0f97625c..5f517bf63589ae35bfe16c0b0e7472efd62042fb 100644
--- a/training/add_a_link/src/add_a_link/release/release_utils.py
+++ b/training/add_a_link/src/add_a_link/release/release_utils.py
@@ -1,5 +1,9 @@
+import os
+
 import fsspec
+from add_a_link.utils import configure_fsspec
 
+configure_fsspec()
 fs_local = fsspec.filesystem("file")
 fs_hdfs = fsspec.filesystem("hdfs")
 
@@ -11,6 +15,7 @@ def copy_from_local_to_hdfs(local_path: str, hdfs_path: str):
 
 
 def copy_from_hdfs_to_local(hdfs_path: str, local_path: str):
+    os.makedirs("/".join(local_path.split("/")[:-1]), exist_ok=True)
     with fs_hdfs.open(hdfs_path, "rb") as fsrc:
         with fs_local.open(local_path, "wb") as fdst:
             fdst.write(fsrc.read())