Retail prices for domestic and imported beef rose last week for the fifth consecutive weekly increase as the import ban on U.S. beef continued to push up prices to record levels, the farm ministry said Monday.

The average price of imported refrigerated beef stood at 373 yen per 100 grams, up 2 yen, or 0.5 percent, from the previous week. That of domestic chilled beef was up 6 yen, or 0.9 percent, to 685 yen, according to the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry.

Both prices are the highest on record since the ministry began tracking them in August.

However, the public Agriculture and Livestock Industries Corp. said wholesale prices of Australian and already stockpiled American beef have been declining since mid-January on a weekly basis, including last week.

"Australian beef imported in early January has begun to be sold on the domestic market and retail beef prices are expected to stabilize soon," an official of the industry promotion body said.

Japan imposed an import ban on U.S. beef products shortly after the discovery of that country's first case of mad cow disease in late December.

Pork loin prices rose to their highest level amid growing demand for the meat as a replacement for beef, with the average price going up 2 yen, or 0.8 percent, to 239 yen per 100 grams last week, the agriculture ministry said.

Prices of chicken leveled off at an average of 117 yen, little affected by the outbreak of bird flu in Asia.