diff --git a/nb-adapters/adapter-cqld4/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/cqlgen/core/CGWorkloadExporter.java b/nb-adapters/adapter-cqld4/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/cqlgen/core/CGWorkloadExporter.java
index 4678917db..4f7efcea8 100644
--- a/nb-adapters/adapter-cqld4/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/cqlgen/core/CGWorkloadExporter.java
+++ b/nb-adapters/adapter-cqld4/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/cqlgen/core/CGWorkloadExporter.java
@@ -72,7 +72,7 @@ public class CGWorkloadExporter implements BundledApp {
     private String namingTemplate;
     private double partitionMultiplier;
     private int quantizerDigits;
-    private boolean disableIfNotExists = false;
+    private boolean enableIfExists = true;
     private Map<String, List<String>> blockplan = Map.of();
 
     private final Map<String, Double> timeouts = new HashMap<String, Double>(Map.of(
@@ -164,8 +164,8 @@ public class CGWorkloadExporter implements BundledApp {
         configureTimeouts(cfgmap.get("timeouts"));
         configureBlocks(cfgmap.get("blockplan"));
         configureQuantizerDigits(cfgmap.get("quantizer_digits"));
-        if (cfgmap.get("disable_if_not_exists").equals(true)) {
-            disableIfNotExists = true;
+        if (cfgmap.get("enable_if_exists").equals(false)) {
+            enableIfExists = false;
         }
 
         this.model = CqlModelParser.parse(ddl, srcpath);
@@ -643,7 +643,7 @@ public class CGWorkloadExporter implements BundledApp {
             ops.put(
                     namer.nameFor(table, "optype", "drop", "blockname", blockname),
                     Map.of(
-                            "simple", "drop table if exists " + table.getFullName() + ";",
+                            "simple", (enableIfExists ? "drop table if exists " : "drop table ") + table.getFullName() + ";",
                             "timeout", timeouts.get("drop")
                     )
             );
@@ -659,7 +659,7 @@ public class CGWorkloadExporter implements BundledApp {
             ops.put(
                     namer.nameFor(type, "optype", "drop-type", "blockname", blockname),
                     Map.of(
-                            "simple", "drop type if exists " + type.getKeyspace() + "." + type.getName() + ";",
+                            "simple", (enableIfExists ? "drop type if exists " : "drop type ") + "." + type.getName() + ";",
                             "timeout", timeouts.get("drop")
                     )
             );
@@ -675,7 +675,7 @@ public class CGWorkloadExporter implements BundledApp {
             ops.put(
                     namer.nameFor(type, "optype", "drop-keyspace", "blockname", blockname),
                     Map.of(
-                            "simple", "drop keyspace if exists " + type.getKeyspace() + ";",
+                            "simple", (enableIfExists ? "drop keyspace if exists " : "drop keyspace ") + type.getKeyspace() + ";",
                             "timeout", timeouts.get("drop")
                     )
             );
@@ -743,7 +743,7 @@ public class CGWorkloadExporter implements BundledApp {
                 create keyspace IF_NOT_EXISTS KEYSPACE
                 with replication = {REPLICATION}DURABLEWRITES?;
                 """
-                .replace("IF_NOT_EXISTS", disableIfNotExists ? "" : "if not exists")
+                .replace("IF_NOT_EXISTS", enableIfExists ? "if not exists" : "")
                 .replace("KEYSPACE", keyspace.getName())
                 .replace("REPLICATION", keyspace.getReplicationData())
                 .replace("DURABLEWRITES?", keyspace.isDurableWrites() ? "" : "\n and durable writes = false")
@@ -775,7 +775,7 @@ public class CGWorkloadExporter implements BundledApp {
                 TYPEDEF
                 );
                 """
-                .replace("IF_NOT_EXISTS", disableIfNotExists ? "" : "if not exists")
+                .replace("IF_NOT_EXISTS", enableIfExists ? "if not exists" : "")
                 .replace("KEYSPACE", type.getKeyspace().getName())
                 .replace("TYPENAME", type.getName())
                 .replace("TYPEDEF", type.getColumnDefs().stream()
@@ -793,7 +793,7 @@ public class CGWorkloadExporter implements BundledApp {
                 primary key (PRIMARYKEY)
                 )CLUSTERING;
                 """
-                .replace("IF_NOT_EXISTS", disableIfNotExists ? "" : "if not exists")
+                .replace("IF_NOT_EXISTS", enableIfExists ? "if not exists" : "")
                 .replace("KEYSPACE", cqltable.getKeyspace().getName())
                 .replace("TABLE", cqltable.getName())
                 .replace("COLUMN_DEFS", genTableColumnDDL(cqltable))
diff --git a/nb-adapters/adapter-cqld4/src/main/resources/cqlgen/cqlgen.conf b/nb-adapters/adapter-cqld4/src/main/resources/cqlgen/cqlgen.conf
index 0a8453e35..494fb4424 100644
--- a/nb-adapters/adapter-cqld4/src/main/resources/cqlgen/cqlgen.conf
+++ b/nb-adapters/adapter-cqld4/src/main/resources/cqlgen/cqlgen.conf
@@ -145,6 +145,6 @@ blockplan:
   # not needed when tags=block:'main.*'
   # main: insert, select, scan-10, update
 
-# Configuration option for removing 'IF NOT EXISTS' in all generated DDL statements
-disable_if_not_exists: false
+# Configuration option for adding 'IF NOT EXISTS' or 'IF EXISTS' in all generated DDL statements
+enable_if_exists: true