diff --git a/internal/event/target/kafka.go b/internal/event/target/kafka.go
index fd42233e1..2ebddd321 100644
--- a/internal/event/target/kafka.go
+++ b/internal/event/target/kafka.go
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ import (
 	"encoding/json"
 	"errors"
 	"fmt"
+	"log"
 	"net/url"
 	"os"
 	"path/filepath"
@@ -331,6 +332,10 @@ func (target *KafkaTarget) init() error {
 }
 
 func (target *KafkaTarget) initKafka() error {
+	if os.Getenv("_MINIO_KAFKA_DEBUG") != "" {
+		sarama.DebugLogger = log.Default()
+	}
+
 	args := target.args
 
 	config := sarama.NewConfig()
diff --git a/internal/logger/target/kafka/kafka.go b/internal/logger/target/kafka/kafka.go
index ac66ec38a..d091ec884 100644
--- a/internal/logger/target/kafka/kafka.go
+++ b/internal/logger/target/kafka/kafka.go
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ import (
 	"encoding/json"
 	"errors"
 	"fmt"
+	"log"
 	"os"
 	"path/filepath"
 	"sync"
@@ -234,6 +235,10 @@ func (h *Target) send(entry interface{}) error {
 
 // Init initialize kafka target
 func (h *Target) init() error {
+	if os.Getenv("_MINIO_KAFKA_DEBUG") != "" {
+		sarama.DebugLogger = log.Default()
+	}
+
 	sconfig := sarama.NewConfig()
 	if h.kconfig.Version != "" {
 		kafkaVersion, err := sarama.ParseKafkaVersion(h.kconfig.Version)