diff --git a/docs/topics/feed-exports.rst b/docs/topics/feed-exports.rst
index cf70b8aca..7e32da6f4 100644
--- a/docs/topics/feed-exports.rst
+++ b/docs/topics/feed-exports.rst
@@ -164,6 +164,11 @@ The feeds are stored in a FTP server.
  * Example URI: ``ftp://user:pass@ftp.example.com/path/to/export.csv``
  * Required external libraries: none
 
+FTP supports two different connection modes: [active or passive](
+https://stackoverflow.com/a/1699163). Scrapy uses the passive connection mode
+by default. To use the active connection mode instead, set the
+:setting:`FEED_STORAGE_FTP_ACTIVE` setting to ``True``.
+
 .. _topics-feed-storage-s3:
 
 S3
@@ -209,6 +214,7 @@ These are the settings used for configuring the feed exports:
  * :setting:`FEED_URI` (mandatory)
  * :setting:`FEED_FORMAT`
  * :setting:`FEED_STORAGES`
+ * :setting:`FEED_STORAGE_FTP_ACTIVE`
  * :setting:`FEED_STORAGE_S3_ACL`
  * :setting:`FEED_EXPORTERS`
  * :setting:`FEED_STORE_EMPTY`
@@ -307,6 +313,16 @@ Default: ``{}``
 A dict containing additional feed storage backends supported by your project.
 The keys are URI schemes and the values are paths to storage classes.
 
+.. setting:: FEED_STORAGE_FTP_ACTIVE
+
+FEED_STORAGE_FTP_ACTIVE
+-----------------------
+
+Default: ``False``
+
+Whether to use [active mode](https://stackoverflow.com/a/1699163) when exporting feeds
+to a FTP server.
+
 .. setting:: FEED_STORAGE_S3_ACL
 
 FEED_STORAGE_S3_ACL
diff --git a/scrapy/extensions/feedexport.py b/scrapy/extensions/feedexport.py
index 39d05de49..d35551fdd 100644
--- a/scrapy/extensions/feedexport.py
+++ b/scrapy/extensions/feedexport.py
@@ -157,19 +157,29 @@ class S3FeedStorage(BlockingFeedStorage):
 
 class FTPFeedStorage(BlockingFeedStorage):
 
-    def __init__(self, uri):
+    def __init__(self, uri, use_active_mode=False):
         u = urlparse(uri)
         self.host = u.hostname
         self.port = int(u.port or '21')
         self.username = u.username
         self.password = u.password
         self.path = u.path
+        self.use_active_mode = use_active_mode
+
+    @classmethod
+    def from_crawler(cls, crawler, uri):
+        return cls(
+            uri=uri,
+            use_active_mode=crawler.settings.getbool('FEED_STORAGE_FTP_ACTIVE')
+        )
 
     def _store_in_thread(self, file):
         file.seek(0)
         ftp = FTP()
         ftp.connect(self.host, self.port)
         ftp.login(self.username, self.password)
+        if self.use_active_mode:
+            ftp.set_pasv(False)
         dirname, filename = posixpath.split(self.path)
         ftp_makedirs_cwd(ftp, dirname)
         ftp.storbinary('STOR %s' % filename, file)
diff --git a/scrapy/settings/default_settings.py b/scrapy/settings/default_settings.py
index 10b6cf9bc..d17eb3125 100644
--- a/scrapy/settings/default_settings.py
+++ b/scrapy/settings/default_settings.py
@@ -158,6 +158,7 @@ FEED_EXPORTERS_BASE = {
 }
 FEED_EXPORT_INDENT = 0
 
+FEED_STORAGE_FTP_ACTIVE = False
 FEED_STORAGE_S3_ACL = ''
 
 FILES_STORE_S3_ACL = 'private'
diff --git a/tests/test_feedexport.py b/tests/test_feedexport.py
index 14bb72170..c5063253a 100644
--- a/tests/test_feedexport.py
+++ b/tests/test_feedexport.py
@@ -71,6 +71,13 @@ class FileFeedStorageTest(unittest.TestCase):
 
 class FTPFeedStorageTest(unittest.TestCase):
 
+    def get_test_spider(self, settings=None):
+        class TestSpider(scrapy.Spider):
+            name = 'test_spider'
+        crawler = get_crawler(settings_dict=settings)
+        spider = TestSpider.from_crawler(crawler)
+        return spider
+
     def test_store(self):
         uri = os.environ.get('FEEDTEST_FTP_URI')
         path = os.environ.get('FEEDTEST_FTP_PATH')
@@ -80,9 +87,20 @@ class FTPFeedStorageTest(unittest.TestCase):
         verifyObject(IFeedStorage, st)
         return self._assert_stores(st, path)
 
+    def test_store_active_mode(self):
+        uri = os.environ.get('FEEDTEST_FTP_URI')
+        path = os.environ.get('FEEDTEST_FTP_PATH')
+        if not (uri and path):
+            raise unittest.SkipTest("No FTP server available for testing")
+        use_active_mode = {'FEED_STORAGE_FTP_ACTIVE': True}
+        crawler = get_crawler(settings_dict=use_active_mode)
+        st = FTPFeedStorage.from_crawler(crawler, uri)
+        verifyObject(IFeedStorage, st)
+        return self._assert_stores(st, path)
+
     @defer.inlineCallbacks
     def _assert_stores(self, storage, path):
-        spider = scrapy.Spider("default")
+        spider = self.get_test_spider()
         file = storage.open(spider)
         file.write(b"content")
         yield storage.store(file)