MOSCOW: Russia plans to send two vessels with a total of 60,000 tonnes of Russian wheat to Algeria in September, two sources familiar with the upcoming supply told Reuters on Friday.

Russia is the world's largest wheat exporter and has been lobbying for access to the Algerian market, usually dominated by French wheat, for years.

The Russian shipments will be part of a tender held by Algeria's state grains agency OAIC earlier this week in which it agreed to purchase up to 290,000 tonnes of optional-origin milling wheat, the sources said.

Excluding a cargo of 28,500 tonnes sent in June, this will be the first major supply of Russian wheat to Algeria in more than four years.

Algeria is one of the few major wheat importers to which Moscow had no access until October last year, when Algeria relaxed its terms regarding bug damage. That made it possible to offer wheat from the Black Sea with higher protein.

Traders previously expected the wheat for the latest tender to be sourced largely from Germany, Poland and the Baltic states with only a possibility of Russian wheat making up part of the order.