diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/kafka/producer/KafkaLog4jAppender.scala b/core/src/main/scala/kafka/producer/KafkaLog4jAppender.scala
index b379439d20996bf5c158a6acbe54b35474cf4cda..66330f1e45b49f9beba7f42dbbbf1bbc9bb7a900 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/kafka/producer/KafkaLog4jAppender.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/kafka/producer/KafkaLog4jAppender.scala
@@ -29,12 +29,16 @@ class KafkaLog4jAppender extends AppenderSkeleton with Logging {
   var port:Int = 0
   var host:String = null
   var topic:String = null
+  var producerType:String = "sync"
   var serializerClass:String = null
   var zkConnect:String = null
   var brokerList:String = null
   
   private var producer: Producer[String, String] = null
 
+  def getProducerType:String = producerType
+  def setProducerType(producerType: String) { this.producerType = producerType }
+
   def getTopic:String = topic
   def setTopic(topic: String) { this.topic = topic }
 
@@ -65,6 +69,7 @@ class KafkaLog4jAppender extends AppenderSkeleton with Logging {
       serializerClass = "kafka.serializer.StringEncoder"
       LogLog.debug("Using default encoder - kafka.serializer.StringEncoder")
     }
+    props.put("producer.type", producerType)
     props.put("serializer.class", serializerClass)
     val config : ProducerConfig = new ProducerConfig(props)
     producer = new Producer[String, String](config)