diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/sqoop/mapreduce/MySQLDumpMapper.java b/src/java/org/apache/sqoop/mapreduce/MySQLDumpMapper.java
index 4ec65ef7..2b94271f 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/sqoop/mapreduce/MySQLDumpMapper.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/sqoop/mapreduce/MySQLDumpMapper.java
@@ -103,6 +103,10 @@ public void run() {
               break; // EOF.
             }
 
+            if (inLine.trim().length() == 0 || inLine.startsWith("--")) {
+              continue; // comments and empty lines are ignored
+            }
+
             // this line is of the form "INSERT .. VALUES ( actual value text
             // );" strip the leading preamble up to the '(' and the trailing
             // ');'.
@@ -236,6 +240,10 @@ public void run() {
               break; // EOF.
             }
 
+            if (inLine.trim().length() == 0 || inLine.startsWith("--")) {
+              continue; // comments and empty lines are ignored
+            }
+
             // this line is of the form "INSERT .. VALUES ( actual value text
             // );" strip the leading preamble up to the '(' and the trailing
             // ');'.