diff --git a/src/v/redpanda/application.cc b/src/v/redpanda/application.cc
index 4e914a6752f92..80b147588279b 100644
--- a/src/v/redpanda/application.cc
+++ b/src/v/redpanda/application.cc
@@ -135,6 +135,7 @@
 #include <seastar/util/defer.hh>
 #include <seastar/util/log.hh>
 
+#include <google/protobuf/stubs/logging.h>
 #include <sys/resource.h>
 #include <sys/utsname.h>
 
@@ -513,6 +514,12 @@ void application::initialize(
       .get();
     _cpu_profiler.invoke_on_all(&resources::cpu_profiler::start).get();
 
+    /*
+     * Disable the logger for protobuf; some interfaces don't allow a pluggable
+     * error collector.
+     */
+    google::protobuf::SetLogHandler(nullptr);
+
     /*
      * allocate per-core zstd decompression workspace and per-core
      * async_stream_zstd workspaces. it can be several megabytes in size, so do