diff --git a/flow/connectors/kafka/kafka.go b/flow/connectors/kafka/kafka.go
index ed1d09abbc..6db283a11f 100644
--- a/flow/connectors/kafka/kafka.go
+++ b/flow/connectors/kafka/kafka.go
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 package connkafka
 
 import (
-	"bytes"
 	"context"
 	"crypto/tls"
 	"errors"
@@ -197,7 +196,7 @@ func (c *KafkaConnector) SyncRecords(ctx context.Context, req *model.SyncRecords
 				return nil, fmt.Errorf("script returned non-nil non-string: %v", value)
 			}
 			wg.Add(1)
-			c.client.Produce(wgCtx, &kgo.Record{Topic: topic, Value: bytes.Clone([]byte(lstr))}, produceCb)
+			c.client.Produce(wgCtx, &kgo.Record{Topic: topic, Value: []byte(lstr)}, produceCb)
 
 			numRecords += 1
 			tableNameRowsMapping[topic] += 1