Demand for cinchona and quinine products is increasing as they are extensively used not only as antimalarials, but huge quantities are also used in the manufacture of tonic drinks, and soft beverages. Salts of quinine are also added to hair oils, sunburn lotions, moth repellants, insecticides, vulcanization accelerators in rubber industry, polarized lenses and as pickling agent in metal industries.

Indonesia and India, where the Dutch and the British respectively introduced the drug from South America, are important producers of cinchona. A high percentage of the total crop is now grown on plantations in Tanzania, Kenya, Gautemala, Bolivia, Zaire, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Columbia and Costa Rica. These countries produce approximately 400–500 tonnes of alkaloids, obtained from 8,000–10,000 tonnes of bark produced annually. In 1991 its wholesale price in Hamburg was DM 2.25/kg.

In India cinchona plantations and alkaloid-processing units in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal are of great historical interest. Having originated in the 1860s there was a slump in the cultivation and production from 1955 to 1965 due to various reasons. Due to resurgence of malaria and identification of newer uses of quinine, there has been a revival in the export market for quinine. Today 3,400 hectares in West Bengal and 2,200 hectares in Tamil Nadu are under cinchona cultivation. While C. officinalis is cultivated at Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu, C. ledgeriana and C. robusta (hybrid of C. officinalis and C. succirubra) are cultivated at Mungpoo on Darjeeling hills in West Bengal.