diff --git a/pumps/kafka.go b/pumps/kafka.go
index a133068a2..ad2756a99 100644
--- a/pumps/kafka.go
+++ b/pumps/kafka.go
@@ -4,6 +4,8 @@ import (
 	"context"
 	"crypto/tls"
 	"encoding/json"
+	"os"
+	"strconv"
 	"time"
 
 	"github.com/TykTechnologies/tyk-pump/analytics"
@@ -39,8 +41,8 @@ type KafkaConf struct {
 	ClientId string `json:"client_id" mapstructure:"client_id"`
 	// The topic that the writer will produce messages to.
 	Topic string `json:"topic" mapstructure:"topic"`
-	// Timeout is the maximum amount of time will wait for a connect or write to complete.
-	Timeout time.Duration `json:"timeout" mapstructure:"timeout"`
+	// Timeout is the maximum amount of seconds to wait for a connect or write to complete.
+	Timeout interface{} `json:"timeout" mapstructure:"timeout"`
 	// Enable "github.com/golang/snappy" codec to be used to compress Kafka messages. By default
 	// is `false`.
 	Compressed bool `json:"compressed" mapstructure:"compressed"`
@@ -90,6 +92,10 @@ func (k *KafkaPump) Init(config interface{}) error {
 	}
 
 	processPumpEnvVars(k, k.log, k.kafkaConf, kafkaDefaultENV)
+	// This interface field is not reached by envconfig library, that's why we manually check it
+	if os.Getenv("TYK_PMP_PUMPS_KAFKA_META_TIMEOUT") != "" {
+		k.kafkaConf.Timeout = os.Getenv("TYK_PMP_PUMPS_KAFKA_META_TIMEOUT")
+	}
 
 	var tlsConfig *tls.Config
 	if k.kafkaConf.UseSSL {
@@ -137,9 +143,26 @@ func (k *KafkaPump) Init(config interface{}) error {
 		k.log.WithField("SASL-Mechanism", k.kafkaConf.SASLMechanism).Warn("Tyk pump doesn't support this SASL mechanism.")
 	}
 
+	// Timeout is an interface type to allow both time.Duration and float values
+	var timeout time.Duration
+	switch v := k.kafkaConf.Timeout.(type) {
+	case string:
+		timeout, err = time.ParseDuration(v) // i.e: when timeout is '1s'
+		if err != nil {
+			floatValue, floatErr := strconv.ParseFloat(v, 64) // i.e: when timeout is '1'
+			if floatErr != nil {
+				k.log.Fatal("Failed to parse timeout: ", floatErr)
+			} else {
+				timeout = time.Duration(floatValue * float64(time.Second))
+			}
+		}
+	case float64:
+		timeout = time.Duration(v) * time.Second // i.e: when timeout is 1
+	}
+
 	//Kafka writer connection config
 	dialer := &kafka.Dialer{
-		Timeout:       k.kafkaConf.Timeout * time.Second,
+		Timeout:       timeout,
 		ClientID:      k.kafkaConf.ClientId,
 		TLS:           tlsConfig,
 		SASLMechanism: mechanism,
@@ -149,8 +172,8 @@ func (k *KafkaPump) Init(config interface{}) error {
 	k.writerConfig.Topic = k.kafkaConf.Topic
 	k.writerConfig.Balancer = &kafka.LeastBytes{}
 	k.writerConfig.Dialer = dialer
-	k.writerConfig.WriteTimeout = k.kafkaConf.Timeout * time.Second
-	k.writerConfig.ReadTimeout = k.kafkaConf.Timeout * time.Second
+	k.writerConfig.WriteTimeout = timeout
+	k.writerConfig.ReadTimeout = timeout
 	if k.kafkaConf.Compressed {
 		k.writerConfig.CompressionCodec = snappy.NewCompressionCodec()
 	}