diff --git a/plugins/out_kafka/kafka_config.c b/plugins/out_kafka/kafka_config.c
index b1f07458884..9f3c4938f9f 100644
--- a/plugins/out_kafka/kafka_config.c
+++ b/plugins/out_kafka/kafka_config.c
@@ -49,6 +49,7 @@ struct flb_out_kafka *flb_out_kafka_create(struct flb_output_instance *ins,
     }
     ctx->ins = ins;
     ctx->blocked = FLB_FALSE;
+    mk_list_init(&ctx->topics);
 
     ret = flb_output_config_map_set(ins, (void*) ctx);
     if (ret == -1) {
@@ -239,9 +240,13 @@ struct flb_out_kafka *flb_out_kafka_create(struct flb_output_instance *ins,
     if (!ctx->kafka.rk) {
         flb_plg_error(ctx->ins, "failed to create producer: %s",
                       errstr);
+        rd_kafka_conf_destroy(ctx->conf);
+        ctx->conf = NULL;
         flb_out_kafka_destroy(ctx);
         return NULL;
     }
+    /* rd_kafka_new() succeeded, conf ownership transferred to rk */
+    ctx->conf = NULL;
 
 #ifdef FLB_HAVE_AVRO_ENCODER
     /* Config AVRO */
@@ -256,7 +261,6 @@ struct flb_out_kafka *flb_out_kafka_create(struct flb_output_instance *ins,
 #endif
 
     /* Config: Topic */
-    mk_list_init(&ctx->topics);
     tmp = flb_output_get_property("topics", ins);
     if (!tmp) {
         flb_kafka_topic_create(FLB_KAFKA_TOPIC, ctx);
@@ -304,6 +308,10 @@ int flb_out_kafka_destroy(struct flb_out_kafka *ctx)
         rd_kafka_destroy(ctx->kafka.rk);
     }
 
+    if (ctx->conf) {
+        rd_kafka_conf_destroy(ctx->conf);
+    }
+
     if (ctx->opaque) {
         flb_kafka_opaque_destroy(ctx->opaque);
     }