diff --git a/dynamicweb/settings/base.py b/dynamicweb/settings/base.py
index fbe0c9ca..58609234 100644
--- a/dynamicweb/settings/base.py
+++ b/dynamicweb/settings/base.py
@@ -10,6 +10,9 @@ from django.utils.translation import ugettext_lazy as _
 
 # dotenv
 import dotenv
+import logging
+
+logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
 
 def gettext(s):
@@ -25,6 +28,20 @@ def bool_env(val):
     return True if os.environ.get(val, False) == 'True' else False
 
 
+def int_env(val, default_value=0):
+    """Replaces string based environment values with Python integers
+    Return default_value if val is not set or cannot be parsed, otherwise
+    returns the python integer equal to the passed val
+    """
+    return_value = default_value
+    try:
+        return_value = int(os.environ.get(val))
+    except Exception as e:
+        logger.error(str(e))
+
+    return return_value
+
+
 BASE_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)))
 
 PROJECT_DIR = os.path.abspath(
@@ -529,6 +546,7 @@ CELERY_ACCEPT_CONTENT = ['application/json']
 CELERY_TASK_SERIALIZER = 'json'
 CELERY_RESULT_SERIALIZER = 'json'
 CELERY_TIMEZONE = 'Europe/Zurich'
+CELERY_MAX_RETRIES = int_env('CELERY_MAX_RETRIES', 5)
 
 ENABLE_DEBUG_LOGGING = bool_env('ENABLE_DEBUG_LOGGING')