From Forest to Doorstep proposes a five-pillar sourcing standard for kratom and rates the company “Partial” on two of them
Authentic Kratom, a California botanical company founded in 2013 by Abdullah Mamun, has published From Forest to Doorstep: Ethical Sourcing Report 2026, a public assessment that proposes a five-pillar ethical sourcing standard for kratom and then measures the company against it. The report arrives in a market where an estimated 10 to 16 million Americans use kratom, no federal quality standard governs it, and the most recognized industry program, the American Kratom Association’s Good Manufacturing Practice standard, is voluntary.
The five pillars are origin transparency, fair compensation, sustainable harvesting, quality and safety, and labor practices. Authentic Kratom rates itself strong on three, on the basis of direct family-farm relationships in Indonesia since 2013 and Thailand since 2022, premium pricing paid as policy, and third-party laboratory testing of more than 1,000 batches with independent re-verification of every lot. It rates itself Partial on sustainable harvesting and labor practices, because neither has yet been confirmed by an outside auditor.
“If you invest in quality at the source, quality follows throughout the entire supply chain,” said Abdullah Mamun, founder of Authentic Kratom. “We’ve never been interested in buying the cheapest kratom available. We pay a premium because quality starts with the people cultivating and processing the product. When farmers are treated fairly and given the resources to maintain high standards, the end result is a better product for consumers.”
The report attributes the category’s difficulties to structure rather than intent. In the conventional supply chain, leaf passes through collectors, consolidators, processors, exporters, and importers before reaching a brand, and by the shelf, the brand often cannot say which farm grew it. Against that, the company sets out a three-step model: family farm and processor, then Authentic Kratom, then the customer.
Since the report’s publication, federal attention to the category has moved further. On August 26, 2026, the Drug Enforcement Administration issued a final temporary order placing three synthetic compounds – mitragynine pseudoindoxyl, MGM-15, and MGM-16 – into Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act. All three are produced through chemical modification of naturally occurring kratom alkaloids rather than found in the plant itself, and the DEA has said the action targets these concentrated, synthetic products rather than conventional kratom leaf – a distinction the report’s quality and safety pillar was already built around.
“Kratom has a long history of traditional use in Southeast Asia, particularly in countries such as Thailand and Indonesia,” said Mamun. “I believe that history, along with modern scientific and regulatory data, deserves to be considered separately from the relatively recent emergence of highly concentrated 7-OH products in the U.S. market.”
On the two Partial ratings, Authentic Kratom has published two commitments: an independent third-party labor audit of its partner farms, and published farm-level origin data across its range. The report closes with four measures it argues would raise standards across the category, including a kratom-specific sourcing standard and wider vendor adoption of the AKA GMP program.
From Forest to Doorstep: Ethical Sourcing Report 2026 is available at https://www.authentickratom.com/ethical-sourcing-report-2026
About Authentic Kratom: Founded in 2013, Authentic Kratom buys directly from family-owned farming and processing partners in Indonesia and Thailand and has every batch tested by a third-party laboratory in the United States before release.
Media Contact:
Abdullah Mamun
818-751-9337
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. For adults 21 and over.
