diff --git a/exporters/common/build.gradle.kts b/exporters/common/build.gradle.kts
index f311510f83d..bbca8bc416a 100644
--- a/exporters/common/build.gradle.kts
+++ b/exporters/common/build.gradle.kts
@@ -67,6 +67,9 @@ testing {
       }
     }
   }
+  suites {
+    register<JvmTestSuite>("testWithoutUnsafe") {}
+  }
 }
 
 tasks {
diff --git a/exporters/common/src/main/java/io/opentelemetry/exporter/internal/marshal/UnsafeString.java b/exporters/common/src/main/java/io/opentelemetry/exporter/internal/marshal/UnsafeString.java
index c581e7525fb..309b005fd49 100644
--- a/exporters/common/src/main/java/io/opentelemetry/exporter/internal/marshal/UnsafeString.java
+++ b/exporters/common/src/main/java/io/opentelemetry/exporter/internal/marshal/UnsafeString.java
@@ -10,7 +10,8 @@
 class UnsafeString {
   private static final long valueOffset = getStringFieldOffset("value", byte[].class);
   private static final long coderOffset = getStringFieldOffset("coder", byte.class);
-  private static final int byteArrayBaseOffset = UnsafeAccess.arrayBaseOffset(byte[].class);
+  private static final int byteArrayBaseOffset =
+      UnsafeAccess.isAvailable() ? UnsafeAccess.arrayBaseOffset(byte[].class) : -1;
   private static final boolean available = valueOffset != -1 && coderOffset != -1;
 
   static boolean isAvailable() {
diff --git a/exporters/common/src/testWithoutUnsafe/java/io/opentelemetry/exporter/internal/marshal/StatelessMarshalerUtilTest.java b/exporters/common/src/testWithoutUnsafe/java/io/opentelemetry/exporter/internal/marshal/StatelessMarshalerUtilTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..8ff3ec2e04d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/exporters/common/src/testWithoutUnsafe/java/io/opentelemetry/exporter/internal/marshal/StatelessMarshalerUtilTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,101 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright The OpenTelemetry Authors
+ * SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+ */
+
+package io.opentelemetry.exporter.internal.marshal;
+
+import static io.opentelemetry.exporter.internal.marshal.StatelessMarshalerUtil.getUtf8Size;
+import static io.opentelemetry.exporter.internal.marshal.StatelessMarshalerUtil.writeUtf8;
+import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat;
+import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThatThrownBy;
+
+import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.InputStream;
+import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
+import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
+
+class StatelessMarshalerUtilTest {
+
+  // Simulate running in an environment without sun.misc.Unsafe e.g. when running a modular
+  // application. To use sun.misc.Unsafe in modular application user would need to add dependency to
+  // jdk.unsupported module or use --add-modules jdk.unsupported. Here we use a custom child first
+  // class loader that does not delegate loading sun.misc classes to make sun.misc.Unsafe
+  // unavailable.
+  @Test
+  void encodeUtf8WithoutUnsafe() throws Exception {
+    ClassLoader testClassLoader =
+        new ClassLoader(this.getClass().getClassLoader()) {
+          @Override
+          protected Class<?> loadClass(String name, boolean resolve) throws ClassNotFoundException {
+            // don't allow loading sun.misc classes
+            if (name.startsWith("sun.misc")) {
+              throw new ClassNotFoundException(name);
+            }
+            // load io.opentelemetry in the custom loader
+            if (name.startsWith("io.opentelemetry")) {
+              synchronized (this) {
+                Class<?> clazz = findLoadedClass(name);
+                if (clazz != null) {
+                  return clazz;
+                }
+                try (InputStream inputStream =
+                    getParent().getResourceAsStream(name.replace(".", "/") + ".class")) {
+                  if (inputStream != null) {
+                    byte[] bytes = readBytes(inputStream);
+                    // we don't bother to define packages or provide protection domain
+                    return defineClass(name, bytes, 0, bytes.length);
+                  }
+                } catch (IOException exception) {
+                  throw new ClassNotFoundException(name, exception);
+                }
+              }
+            }
+            return super.loadClass(name, resolve);
+          }
+        };
+
+    // load test class in the custom loader and run the test
+    Class<?> testClass = testClassLoader.loadClass(this.getClass().getName() + "$TestClass");
+    assertThat(testClass.getClassLoader()).isEqualTo(testClassLoader);
+    Runnable test = (Runnable) testClass.getConstructor().newInstance();
+    test.run();
+  }
+
+  private static byte[] readBytes(InputStream inputStream) throws IOException {
+    ByteArrayOutputStream out = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
+    byte[] buffer = new byte[1024];
+
+    int readCount;
+    while ((readCount = inputStream.read(buffer, 0, buffer.length)) != -1) {
+      out.write(buffer, 0, readCount);
+    }
+    return out.toByteArray();
+  }
+
+  @SuppressWarnings("unused")
+  public static class TestClass implements Runnable {
+
+    @Override
+    public void run() {
+      // verify that unsafe can't be found
+      assertThatThrownBy(() -> Class.forName("sun.misc.Unsafe"))
+          .isInstanceOf(ClassNotFoundException.class);
+      // test the methods that use unsafe
+      assertThat(getUtf8Size("a", true)).isEqualTo(1);
+      assertThat(testUtf8("a", 0)).isEqualTo("a");
+    }
+
+    static String testUtf8(String string, int utf8Length) {
+      try (ByteArrayOutputStream outputStream = new ByteArrayOutputStream()) {
+        CodedOutputStream codedOutputStream = CodedOutputStream.newInstance(outputStream);
+        writeUtf8(codedOutputStream, string, utf8Length, true);
+        codedOutputStream.flush();
+        return new String(outputStream.toByteArray(), StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
+      } catch (Exception exception) {
+        throw new IllegalArgumentException(exception);
+      }
+    }
+  }
+}