The modern uses of cinnamon continue to be varied. Stick or powdered cinnamon is still a well-loved food flavor, as popular as it was in biblical times. It is the classic flavor for apple pie, Madeira cake and doughnuts, and for a host of yeast pastries and cookies. It is also the mainstay of "sweet pudding spice" which is always added to Christmas pudding. Cinnamon doubles as a savory spice too, and in Sri Lanka is always added to vegetable, fish and meat curries, fancy rice dishes and sweetmeats. Cinnamon oil gives comfort to toothache sufferers wishing to postpone a visit to the dentist. In Mexico cinnamon tea is a popular beverage, and tallow from the cinnamon fruit makes the sweet-scented candles used in Greek Orthodox churches. Cinnamon oil is also much used as a base ingredient in perfumes, dentifrice and soaps, and cinnamon extract is used to flavor chocolates and liqueurs.

Due to its relatively small land coverage compared to other domestic plantation crops, cinnamon in Sri Lanka is classified as a "minor export." Nevertheless, in 1990 Sri Lanka exported 8,233 metric tons of the spice. Sri Lanka also exported large volumes of cinnamon leaf oil and bark oil used for industrial flavoring and medicinal purposes.

World trade in cinnamon is centered round London and the Dutch ports of Amsterdam and Rotterdam, the main transshipment points for its leading buyers being Mexico, the United States, Britain, Germany, Holland, Colombia and Spain.