diff --git a/packaging/nuget/README.md b/packaging/nuget/README.md
index 0ca2af9903..0d6cca928b 100644
--- a/packaging/nuget/README.md
+++ b/packaging/nuget/README.md
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ The finalized nuget package maybe uploaded manually to NuGet.org
 7. If you trust this process you can have release.py upload the package
    automatically to NuGet after building it:
 
-    $ ./release.py --upload "$(cat your-nuget-api.key)" v0.11.0
+    $ ./release.py --retries 100 --upload your-nuget-api.key v0.11.0
 
 
 
diff --git a/packaging/nuget/packaging.py b/packaging/nuget/packaging.py
index 8dda85be27..cc2de31c30 100755
--- a/packaging/nuget/packaging.py
+++ b/packaging/nuget/packaging.py
@@ -53,6 +53,10 @@
 #   librdkafka/p-librdkafka__bld-travis__plat-linux__arch-x64__tag-v0.0.62__sha-d051b2c19eb0c118991cd8bc5cf86d8e5e446cde__bid-1562.1/librdkafka.tar.gz
 
 
+class MissingArtifactError(Exception):
+    pass
+
+
 s3_bucket = 'librdkafka-ci-packages'
 dry_run = False
 
@@ -400,7 +404,7 @@ def build (self, buildtype):
                     break
 
             if artifact is None:
-                raise Exception('unable to find artifact with tags %s matching "%s"' % (str(attributes), fname_glob))
+                raise MissingArtifactError('unable to find artifact with tags %s matching "%s"' % (str(attributes), fname_glob))
 
             outf = os.path.join(self.stpath, m[2])
             member = m[1]
@@ -538,7 +542,7 @@ def build (self, buildtype):
                     break
 
             if artifact is None:
-                raise Exception('unable to find artifact with tags %s matching "%s"' % (str(attributes), fname_glob))
+                raise MissingArtifactError('unable to find artifact with tags %s matching "%s"' % (str(attributes), fname_glob))
 
             outf = os.path.join(self.stpath, m[2])
             member = m[1]
diff --git a/packaging/nuget/release.py b/packaging/nuget/release.py
index 302e5af7bb..a5b648a0db 100755
--- a/packaging/nuget/release.py
+++ b/packaging/nuget/release.py
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@
 import os
 import sys
 import argparse
+import time
 import packaging
 
 
@@ -27,12 +28,15 @@
     parser.add_argument("--no-cleanup", help="Don't clean up temporary folders", action="store_true")
     parser.add_argument("--sha", help="Also match on this git sha1", default=None)
     parser.add_argument("--nuget-version", help="The nuget package version (defaults to same as tag)", default=None)
-    parser.add_argument("--upload", help="Upload package to after building, using provided NuGet API key", default=None, type=str)
+    parser.add_argument("--upload", help="Upload package to after building, using provided NuGet API key (either file or the key itself)", default=None,
+                        type=str)
     parser.add_argument("--class", help="Packaging class (see packaging.py)", default="NugetPackage", dest="pkgclass")
+    parser.add_argument("--retries", help="Number of retries to collect artifacts", default=0, type=int)
     parser.add_argument("tag", help="Git tag to collect")
 
     args = parser.parse_args()
     dry_run = args.dry_run
+    retries = args.retries
     if not args.directory:
         args.directory = 'dl-%s' % args.tag
 
@@ -76,8 +80,22 @@
 
     print('Building packages:')
 
-    p = pkgclass(package_version, arts)
-    pkgfile = p.build(buildtype='release')
+    while True:
+        try:
+            p = pkgclass(package_version, arts)
+            pkgfile = p.build(buildtype='release')
+            break
+        except packaging.MissingArtifactError as e:
+            if retries <= 0:
+                if not args.no_cleanup:
+                    p.cleanup()
+                raise e
+
+            p.cleanup()
+            retries -= 1
+            print(e)
+            print('Retrying in 30 seconds')
+            time.sleep(30)
 
     if not args.no_cleanup:
         p.cleanup()
@@ -93,7 +111,13 @@
     print('Created package: %s' % pkgfile)
 
     if args.upload is not None:
+        if os.path.isfile(args.upload):
+            with open(args.upload, 'r') as f:
+                nuget_key = f.read().replace('\n', '')
+        else:
+            nuget_key = args.upload
+
         print('Uploading %s to NuGet' % pkgfile)
-        r = os.system("./push-to-nuget.sh '%s' %s" % (args.upload, pkgfile))
+        r = os.system("./push-to-nuget.sh '%s' %s" % (nuget_key, pkgfile))
         assert int(r) == 0, "NuGet upload failed with exit code {}, see previous errors".format(r)
         print('%s successfully uploaded to NuGet' % pkgfile)