diff --git a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/next/DefaultCatalogProcessingEngine.ts b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/next/DefaultCatalogProcessingEngine.ts
index 877c3075aa..55cb8e2029 100644
--- a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/next/DefaultCatalogProcessingEngine.ts
+++ b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/next/DefaultCatalogProcessingEngine.ts
@@ -103,43 +103,42 @@ export class DefaultCatalogProcessingEngine implements CatalogProcessingEngine {
       });
     });
 
-    if (items.length) {
-      const { id, state, unprocessedEntity } = items[0];
-
-      const result = await this.orchestrator.process({
-        entity: unprocessedEntity,
-        state,
-      });
-      for (const error of result.errors) {
-        this.logger.warn(error.message);
-      }
-      if (!result.ok) {
-        return;
-      }
-
-      result.completedEntity.metadata.uid = id;
-      await this.processingDatabase.transaction(async tx => {
-        await this.processingDatabase.updateProcessedEntity(tx, {
-          id,
-          processedEntity: result.completedEntity,
-          state: result.state,
-          errors: JSON.stringify(result.errors),
-          relations: result.relations,
-          deferredEntities: result.deferredEntities,
-        });
-      });
-
-      const setOfThingsToStitch = new Set<string>([
-        stringifyEntityRef(result.completedEntity),
-        ...result.relations.map(relation =>
-          stringifyEntityRef(relation.source),
-        ),
-      ]);
-      await this.stitcher.stitch(setOfThingsToStitch);
-    } else {
+    if (!items.length) {
       // No items to process, wait and try again.
       await this.wait();
+      return;
     }
+
+    const { id, state, unprocessedEntity } = items[0];
+
+    const result = await this.orchestrator.process({
+      entity: unprocessedEntity,
+      state,
+    });
+    for (const error of result.errors) {
+      this.logger.warn(error.message);
+    }
+    if (!result.ok) {
+      return;
+    }
+
+    result.completedEntity.metadata.uid = id;
+    await this.processingDatabase.transaction(async tx => {
+      await this.processingDatabase.updateProcessedEntity(tx, {
+        id,
+        processedEntity: result.completedEntity,
+        state: result.state,
+        errors: JSON.stringify(result.errors),
+        relations: result.relations,
+        deferredEntities: result.deferredEntities,
+      });
+    });
+
+    const setOfThingsToStitch = new Set<string>([
+      stringifyEntityRef(result.completedEntity),
+      ...result.relations.map(relation => stringifyEntityRef(relation.source)),
+    ]);
+    await this.stitcher.stitch(setOfThingsToStitch);
   }
 
   private async wait() {