diff --git a/.test-conda-env-py3.yml b/.test-conda-env-py3.yml
index a53d2c220b3ff0f3fe936d3ecfa59c7465281072..d5e01eadd507ed75edf704a20147160d801b65e2 100644
--- a/.test-conda-env-py3.yml
+++ b/.test-conda-env-py3.yml
@@ -12,5 +12,6 @@ dependencies:
 - islpy
 - pyopencl
 - python=3.5
-- python-symengine=0.3.0
+- symengine::symengine=0.3.0
+- symengine::python-symengine=0.3.0
 # things not in here: loopy boxtree pymbolic pyfmmlib
diff --git a/sumpy/symbolic.py b/sumpy/symbolic.py
index 665aff9d80b6fb9f5ae0e67770a361110db36210..49fa405929ed713579b27e2b52d6af2493da482b 100644
--- a/sumpy/symbolic.py
+++ b/sumpy/symbolic.py
@@ -42,8 +42,9 @@ def _find_symbolic_backend():
     try:
         import symengine  # noqa
         symengine_found = True
-    except ImportError:
+    except ImportError as import_error:
         symengine_found = False
+        symengine_error = import_error
 
     ALLOWED_BACKENDS = ("sympy", "symengine")  # noqa
     BACKEND_ENV_VAR = "SUMPY_FORCE_SYMBOLIC_BACKEND"  # noqa
@@ -60,11 +61,9 @@ def _find_symbolic_backend():
                     ", ".join("'%s'" % val for val in ALLOWED_BACKENDS)))
 
         if backend == "symengine" and not symengine_found:
-            from warnings import warn
-            warn("%s=symengine was specified, but could not find symengine. "
-                 "Using sympy." % BACKEND_ENV_VAR, RuntimeWarning)
+            raise RuntimeError("could not find SymEngine: %s" % symengine_error)
 
-        USE_SYMENGINE = backend == "symengine" and symengine_found
+        USE_SYMENGINE = True
     else:
         USE_SYMENGINE = symengine_found