diff --git a/weed/mq/kafka/protocol/fetch.go b/weed/mq/kafka/protocol/fetch.go
index 611f2fbc6..757056cdb 100644
--- a/weed/mq/kafka/protocol/fetch.go
+++ b/weed/mq/kafka/protocol/fetch.go
@@ -244,8 +244,10 @@ func (h *Handler) handleFetch(ctx context.Context, correlationID uint32, apiVers
 	// Phase 2: Wait for all results with adequate timeout for CI environments
 	// CRITICAL: We MUST return a result for every requested partition or Sarama will error
 	results := make([]*partitionFetchResult, len(pending))
-	// Use the client's requested MaxWaitTime
-	deadline := time.After(time.Duration(maxWaitMs) * time.Millisecond)
+	// Use the client's requested MaxWaitTime plus a small buffer
+	// The 100ms buffer provides backpressure for downstream consumers (like Schema Registry's
+	// internal consumer) that may need time to catch up after rapid writes
+	deadline := time.After(time.Duration(maxWaitMs)*time.Millisecond + 100*time.Millisecond)
 
 	// Collect results one by one with shared deadline
 	for i, pf := range pending {