diff --git a/pyvortex/src/encode.rs b/pyvortex/src/encode.rs
index 838ca044aa..850fc45563 100644
--- a/pyvortex/src/encode.rs
+++ b/pyvortex/src/encode.rs
@@ -24,7 +24,8 @@ pub fn encode<'py>(obj: &Bound<'py, PyAny>) -> PyResult<Bound<'py, PyArray>> {
 
     if obj.is_instance(&pa_array)? {
         let arrow_array = ArrowArrayData::from_pyarrow_bound(obj).map(make_array)?;
-        let enc_array = Array::from_arrow(arrow_array, false);
+        let is_nullable = arrow_array.is_nullable();
+        let enc_array = Array::from_arrow(arrow_array, is_nullable);
         Bound::new(obj.py(), PyArray::new(enc_array))
     } else if obj.is_instance(&chunked_array)? {
         let chunks: Vec<Bound<PyAny>> = obj.getattr("chunks")?.extract()?;
diff --git a/pyvortex/test/test_array.py b/pyvortex/test/test_array.py
index db93368baf..8acf7ab2fd 100644
--- a/pyvortex/test/test_array.py
+++ b/pyvortex/test/test_array.py
@@ -8,6 +8,12 @@ def test_primitive_array_round_trip():
     assert arr.to_arrow().combine_chunks() == a
 
 
+def test_array_with_nulls():
+    a = pa.array([b"123", None])
+    arr = vortex.encode(a)
+    assert arr.to_arrow().combine_chunks() == a
+
+
 def test_varbin_array_round_trip():
     a = pa.array(["a", "b", "c"])
     arr = vortex.encode(a)