diff --git a/doc/source/development/contributing_environment.rst b/doc/source/development/contributing_environment.rst
index 8bc15d6968afc..fe8b533f1907d 100644
--- a/doc/source/development/contributing_environment.rst
+++ b/doc/source/development/contributing_environment.rst
@@ -249,6 +249,15 @@ To compile pandas with setuptools, run::
 
    python setup.py develop
 
+.. note::
+   If pandas is already installed (via meson), you have to uninstall it first::
+
+        python -m pip uninstall pandas
+
+This is because python setup.py develop will not uninstall the loader script that ``meson-python``
+uses to import the extension from the build folder, which may cause errors such as an
+``FileNotFoundError`` to be raised.
+
 .. note::
    You will need to repeat this step each time the C extensions change, for example
    if you modified any file in ``pandas/_libs`` or if you did a fetch and merge from ``upstream/main``.