diff --git a/common/source/java/ch/systemsx/cisd/common/parser/ExcelRowTokenizer.java b/common/source/java/ch/systemsx/cisd/common/parser/ExcelRowTokenizer.java
index 9d9ceab0ca1a4d8111f69bcc4c6610fe097f92a9..4ba1ff38fb24f4e0d3a0ee0fdcc7a27b9f8aff58 100644
--- a/common/source/java/ch/systemsx/cisd/common/parser/ExcelRowTokenizer.java
+++ b/common/source/java/ch/systemsx/cisd/common/parser/ExcelRowTokenizer.java
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ package ch.systemsx.cisd.common.parser;
 import org.apache.poi.ss.usermodel.Cell;
 import org.apache.poi.ss.usermodel.Row;
 import org.apache.poi.ss.util.CellReference;
+import org.apache.poi.ss.util.NumberToTextConverter;
 
 import ch.systemsx.cisd.common.shared.basic.utils.StringUtils;
 
@@ -86,7 +87,7 @@ public class ExcelRowTokenizer implements ILineTokenizer<Row>
             case Cell.CELL_TYPE_BOOLEAN:
                 return Boolean.toString(cell.getBooleanCellValue());
             case Cell.CELL_TYPE_NUMERIC:
-                return Double.toString(cell.getNumericCellValue());
+                return NumberToTextConverter.toText(cell.getNumericCellValue());
             case Cell.CELL_TYPE_STRING:
                 return cell.getStringCellValue();
             case Cell.CELL_TYPE_FORMULA:
diff --git a/common/sourceTest/java/ch/systemsx/cisd/common/parser/ExcelRowTokenizerTest.java b/common/sourceTest/java/ch/systemsx/cisd/common/parser/ExcelRowTokenizerTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..e43211d7a236d03feb532bd00dcd83f0c272a9ad
--- /dev/null
+++ b/common/sourceTest/java/ch/systemsx/cisd/common/parser/ExcelRowTokenizerTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,68 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2011 ETH Zuerich, CISD
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package ch.systemsx.cisd.common.parser;
+
+import java.io.InputStream;
+import java.util.Arrays;
+import java.util.List;
+
+import org.apache.commons.io.IOUtils;
+import org.apache.poi.hssf.usermodel.HSSFSheet;
+import org.apache.poi.hssf.usermodel.HSSFWorkbook;
+import org.apache.poi.poifs.filesystem.POIFSFileSystem;
+import org.apache.poi.ss.usermodel.Row;
+import org.testng.AssertJUnit;
+import org.testng.annotations.Test;
+
+/**
+ * @author Kaloyan Enimanev
+ */
+public class ExcelRowTokenizerTest extends AssertJUnit
+{
+    @Test
+    public void testIntegerValuesParsedCorrectly() throws Exception
+    {
+        List<Row> row = getRows();
+
+        String[] line1 = ExcelRowTokenizer.tokenizeRow(row.get(0));
+        assertEquals("4980", line1[0]);
+        assertEquals("TEST_STRING", line1[1]);
+        assertEquals("yes", line1[2]);
+
+        String[] line2 = ExcelRowTokenizer.tokenizeRow(row.get(1));
+        assertEquals("12.3", line2[0]);
+        assertEquals("Meh blah & so on", line2[1]);
+        assertEquals("no", line2[2]);
+
+    }
+
+    private List<Row> getRows() throws Exception
+    {
+        final InputStream stream = getClass().getResourceAsStream("excel-row-tokenizer-test.xls");
+        try
+        {
+            POIFSFileSystem poifsFileSystem = new POIFSFileSystem(stream);
+            HSSFWorkbook workbook = new HSSFWorkbook(poifsFileSystem);
+            final HSSFSheet sheet = workbook.getSheetAt(0);
+            return Arrays.<Row> asList(sheet.getRow(0), sheet.getRow(1));
+        } finally
+        {
+            IOUtils.closeQuietly(stream);
+        }
+    }
+
+}
diff --git a/common/sourceTest/java/ch/systemsx/cisd/common/parser/excel-row-tokenizer-test.xls b/common/sourceTest/java/ch/systemsx/cisd/common/parser/excel-row-tokenizer-test.xls
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..9f9856b9cd84cd5aae9400a7b414f0e5e8fa01dd
Binary files /dev/null and b/common/sourceTest/java/ch/systemsx/cisd/common/parser/excel-row-tokenizer-test.xls differ